A Pirate's Life for Me
by xXSleepingXx
Summary: In the hunt for the legendary treasure supposedly kept by the people of the Moon, the Captain of the Black Wing Pirates, Crow, meets a boy named Seto with an odd talent that could lead him to the treasure he seeks. No one said it would be easy. CrowXSeto
1. Of Plunder and Debts

An uneasy meow sounded at the feet of a boy with dark hair as the cat that had made the sudden noise and he stood at the bow of the ship. The boy looked down with a half annoyed, half curious, glance to meet the feline with his own pair of very cat-like eyes, his yellow staring into the blue of the black cat that had started pacing around his feet. Every now and then, the cat would stop and shake it's fur.

"You feel a storm comin' or something fleabag?" The boy asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow when his only reply was a rather non-indictive yawn.

The previous captain of this ship, an old, sea season pirate known throughout all the seas simply as Raven, had explained to the boy once the importance of a cat on a pirate ship. Cats were sensitive to changes in weather, far more than humans were, and a cat acting strangely on the ship could be forewarning an incoming storm. That's what Raven, the previous captain of the Black Wing pirates, had told him. For the many years Crow had been sailing with that blasted cat and how many times that thing had lead them straight into an oncoming storm, the boy had reasonable doubts.

"What, is that wad of fur predicting smooth seas where we're headed and trying to aim us into a hail storm?" The first-mate asked walking up beside him, a small smirk on his scruffy face.

"Nope," the boy replied, his face a picture of complete and total seriousness "For once, he's actually attempting to save our lives and direct us away from a terrible storm."

The first mate rolled his eyes at the boy, the sarcasm of the remark not lost on him as the black cat sitting at their feet watched them both, as if it could understand the conversation that was taking place.

"You want me to port at the nearest town anyways, Captain?"

Crow nodded quietly, holding onto his trade mark purple hat as a gust of wind suddenly tore off the ocean and through the ship, making the sails shudder in it's wake. His first mate looked up at the darkening, but barely cloudy sky with a shrug before he walked away to tell the navigator to look for a town on his slightly out-of-date map.

The young pirate captain could almost feel the ship changing direction beneath his feet as he leaned forward onto the mast, watching on the dark horizon as stars began to show next to the much more obvious lights of a city or town. They should reach the place before the night was even half way finished. The black cat jumped up on the railing beside Crow and nuzzled into his shoulder, prompting the captain to scratch the cat behind the ear.

Off in the direction they had been going previously, lightning lit the sky up and thunder roared. But by now, the Black Wing's ship was too far off to hear or see it.

* * *

"Se-to! Hurry up with Batty's tuna, he's getting impatient!" The whining voice of a girl that was somewhere near the front of the building was easily heard the person who was in the kitchen in the back.

This person was Seto, who sighed plaintively and stared at the tuna that was originally going to be his dinner that was now going to the spoiled, big eared cat that was sitting with it's owner towards the front of the shop. Why he was in this shop's kitchen sacrificing his dinner to a cat was actually a very interesting and somewhat pitiful story.

The scrawny, maroon haired boy had arrived in the town of Garnet two months prior after the death of his grandfather, who's last wish was that Seto travel east. Honestly, Seto had no idea where in the east he was supposed to go or why he was going that way, but found it was easiest to stay going east by following the shoreline and the sea offered a familiar comfort that reminded him of the water front of his grandfather's house, though following the shore line meant he was going south east pretty often. He may not know his intentions for sending him east, but the old man he had come to know had told him to go east in his last written words. The boy was determined to follow them wherever they may lead.

They ended up leading him to Garnet sometime late in the summer of that year, a shoreline town like he'd gotten used to stopping in during his travels.

They had also led him to a misunderstanding with a farmer who for some odd, unknown reason was under the impression that Seto had something to do with his missing chickens. Despite what Seto had tried (and failed) to tell the man, the mad farmer ended up chasing after him with a hatchet.

Those words also were the reason that in the midst of the chase, a silver tabby cat with large, bat-like ears had seemingly lead him through the maze that was the town of Garnet and led him to a strange looking shop that had a large window in the front and a small wooden sign hanging over the door that simply read "Ren's". Ren, it turned out, was a girl a few years older than himself and the owner of the big eared tabby (appropriately named Batty) as well as a dozen other cats, and the owner of the shop itself.

It was because of that cat crazy girl that Seto had been stuck in Garnet the past two months.

The boy wiped his hands on his too large, turquoise coat and sighed as he grabbed the plate of tuna and walked out to the main sitting room that was the closest to the front of the shop without actually being seen from the shop itself. Ren was sitting there on a large, cream colored couch and was resting her head of silver hair on the back of it. Batty was sitting contented in her lap, but was giving Seto a smug look the moment he walked into the room.

"You sure took your time." Ren chided, raising an eyebrow at him as she pointed to the table in-between them currently. Seto set the tuna down on it and almost instantly the large eared tabby was on the table gobbling Seto's dinner down "You're never gonna get out of Batty's debt at this rate, Seto." The girl commented with a frown.

Yes, that was right. The reason Seto had not left the town of Garnet for the past two months was because he was indebted to a cat.

In that time, Seto had learned many things. First and foremost that he dislike being in debt, especially to a selfish cat with an attitude. Second, he learned that the latter mentioned cat acted completely different when his owner was nearby. Thirdly, he discovered that his fate at the hand of the mad chicken farmer might have been preferable to the situation he was in now.

"S-Sorry, it took me a bit to find the tuna…" Seto answered with a small glance at the cat, who was eating the tuna happily. Seto had considering cooking it to spite the creature since the cat hated his cooking. The thought made him feel guilty though, the conditions weren't perfect, but Ren was nice enough and let him stay in the shop while he worked off his debt to her cat. Really, when she wasn't slave driving him doing work for her, the silver haired girl could be quite nice even if she only spoke to him when she needed to. He wouldn't call them friends exactly, but they were something.

The door at the front of the store chimed, alerting it's inhabitants to a customer entering.

Ren hopped up from the couch with a happy smile, dusting off her slightly tattered, purple dress as she walked out of the room, vanishing around the corner of the hall that led into the shop in front. Seto sighed and plopped down onto the couch, watching Batty eat his tuna.

"I was planning on eating that, you know." He mumbled. Batty flicked his tail in response, which the maroon haired boy assumed meant that the cat could care less if he was eating Seto's dinner.

Seto sighed again before standing back up and wandering back to the kitchen. He still had to find something to eat for himself, after all, since tuna was apparently no longer an option. Pulling up his sleeve, the boy prepared to start making himself something to eat when he noticed a bunch of dried fish that Ren had brought home earlier in the day. One of the rules while Seto was living in Ren's shop was that he was not allowed to eat the fish that was bought because it was meant for all the cats. However that did not leave much option wise for things to eat. What Ren didn't know wouldn't hurt her, right?

"Se-to!" He flinched, spinning around at the sound of Ren's voice, only to see she wasn't there. He looked at doorway confused for a second, before shrugging and turning again to reach for one of the dried fish hanging above him.

"SETO!" Seto jumped, looking again towards the doorway. Ren wants something, he thought with a sigh, ignoring his growling stomach as he walked out of the kitchen towards the front of the store, his head hanging slightly when he finally entered.

Ren's shop wasn't exactly extravagant, it didn't sell anything high end cant-find-anywhere-else items nor did it sell things people needed for daily living. It was made up of tables, four of which held her wares, and one in the middle that acted as check out. The shop had a dirt floor and very gray walls, altogether it was very bleak. The only thing attractive about the shop in general was what was on those four tables. Pretty much, Ren owned an odd trinket shop.

The term odd wasn't used loosely either, and it did fit into the category of cant-find-anywhere-else sort of items, just not the type you would expect. On one table sat assorted pieces of jewelry, ranging from a small silver skull ring to a bright yellow flower pin that had apparently been a gift from a traveler a long time ago.

On another table sat small children's toys, where at the moment a lone chicken doll sat at the front of the table that the girls in town played with in the store sometimes.

The third table held musical instruments, along with small things that just made noise. On one side of the table sat seven colored bells, which Ren was always reluctant to try and sell because of an apparent history. Next to the bells were multiple stringed instruments, ranging from large to small, low to high pitch.

The last table was Seto's favorite, because on top of it many different books laid slowly gathering dust. There weren't very many, it wasn't that books were hard to find, but both Seto and Ren had the tendency to sneak books off the shelf, which only Seto got in trouble for. The books on the shelf right then were pretty simple, one or two bibles and a few tarnished novels. Earlier in the week a storybook ad been up there, only to disappear then reappear in the small, hard to notice crevice in Seto's space (he hadn't read it read, it'd be up again when he finished).

But enough describing the store, back to the present.

"About time you got out here, I called you twice." Ren said, tapping her foot in an impatient manner. In front of her stood a clean cut man in fancy clothes, obviously rich with a lot of money. On the check out table a gold banded diamond ring sat, and it didn't take Seto long to put two and two together.

"Seto, this is Mr. Abe, and he's here to sell this ring to us." As if the emphasize her point, the silver haired girl picked the ring up and showed it to him. "You wouldn't mind watching the transaction would you?" He gave a small smile to Mr. Abe "As a precaution of course, for us both." The man nodded, and Seto thought the oddest thing about him was that not even that gesture got his nose out of the air. As the two began to talk quality and price, Seto sat on the ground and pretty much just watched Mr. Abe, who seemed to busy haggling with Ren to notice that he wasn't really watching or listening to anything they were doing.

It was about fifteen minutes later that their conversation finally ended and they were settling on a final price when Ren motioned him over again with a wave of her hand. Brushing the dirt off of his pants as he stood, Seto walked over to stand by Ren as she examined the ring closer, and judging by the look on her face she was considering the price the man had set for it.

"Well Seto, is this a fair transaction?" She asked, holding up the ring to the light, but watching his face out of the corner of her eyes. She didn't buy anything without Seto there, because Seto just had a nose for this sort of thing. She didn't know why, but he did. So when he frowned and shook his head, she set the ring down.

"The ring isn't diamond and the band isn't gold, if I had to guess." He explained, seeing Mr. Abe's baffled face. As if to prove his point, he picked the ring up of the table and scratched at the band, causing which when he pulled his nail back and looked at it, it had small streaks of green. "If you got it better examined the band at least would be fools gold." Seto said quietly, handing the ring back the Ren, who smiled at him. The smile turned cold as it was turned towards Mr. Abe, who took a few steps back.

"Thank you Seto, that's all I needed." She said, indicating it was time for him to go.

"Alright, glad I could help." Ren waved him off, keeping her attention on the liar in front of her. And as Seto left the room, he heard a blood chilling voice suggest that Mr. Abe try another price. Seto hurried to the back of the store, Ren was scary when she was mad, and he didn't want to be a witness to anything. Sneaking into the kitchen and finally snagging a small dried fish, he took a bite to quiet his growling stomach as he walked to his designated space farther in the back. He didn't actually have a room in Ren's home, because he was only there until his debt to Batty was fulfilled, so he tended to stay in one of the more unused rooms that Ren ended up loaning him. It really couldn't be considered his, though.

The room itself was pretty small in size and almost empty. To one corner his bag set, unused in two months holding all the things he used for travel (sentimental items, clothes, weapons, first aid, exc.). Spread around the room in random piles were broken things Ren had never managed to sell, which luckily for Seto included a blanket set that was slightly frayed from cats abusing it over time.

In the middle of the room nearby where Seto had set up his makeshift bed of blankets there was a small, round fireplace which Ren had never even bothered using because the cats always got too close and burned themselves or singed their hair. It kept Seto warm at night, to say the least. And off on the south wall of the room there was a small window which faced the ocean, and had a very pretty view of the ocean at night.

It may not have been his, but it was nice nonetheless.

Nibbling on his small dinner, Seto sat in front of the fireplace and sparked a fire, letting it slowly warm him up and ease away the chill that Ren's shop always seemed to give him.

"It's so soothing watching the flames." He murmured holding his hands up to the flame so they would warm up quicker. Off in the distance, he heard the church bells tolling, which the red haired boy found odd. "It cant be that late already." He said, standing up from his spot on the ground and walking to the window.

And he was right, it wasn't that late yet, not late enough for the bells to be ringing. They were announcing something else, something slowly coming up to the docks of Garnet. It was a ship, which on the sails were sewn two black feathers crossed in an X that matched the small flag flapping in the sea breeze.

The bells weren't tolling the time, they were tolling a warning.

Pirates were about to dock.

* * *

On the deck of the Black Wing's ship, every crew member could hear in the upcoming town the bell announcing their arrival.

"About time they showed us some respect." Crow commented, his eyes holding anything if not complete amusement. Next to him, the first mate was smiling as he turned the ship towards one of the loading docs, the tolling bells getting louder as they approached.

"How about it Captain? Give'em a warning shot before we get there?" The first mate nodded his head towards the cannons on the port side of the ship. Crow rolled his eyes.

"Yes, and give them a reason to attack us before we even get there." He said, walking away from the first mate "I'll let them have the benefit of the doubt for now." Again, the first mate rolled his eyes at the lack of violent drive in their captain. He begrudgingly steered the ship into port, docking for the night.

End Chapter 1

So...its not that bad, right? It was about six pages on Word, so I hope its not too short. I'll have the next chapter up soon, probably in the next few days.

In the meantime though, a review would be liked if you actually read through this. Reviews mean chapters come quicker ^^

**EDIT**: Wooh, first edit done! It was mainly the spacing, but I also added smaller details and re-wrote chunks of the beginning. Hopefully, this is at least somewhat better or not worse than it originally was.


	2. Crows like shiny things

Chapter 2 "Crows like shiny things"

The sun was just beginning its fall below the ocean when the Black Wing pirates finally docked and everyone got off board, aside from the few left to guard the ship. Crow stood out ahead of them all, dressed in a flamboyant purple outfit with a matching hat, which besides the obvious height disadvantage, really set him apart from his crew.

"Alright everyone, you know the drill," He said, scanning over the crew and only stopping on the very few he didn't trust to do as he said "Right now we're just visiting, you got me? Don't be stupid and piss off the locals yet." The majority of the crew rolled their eyes, and just walked past when Crow gave them the cue to leave. They'd heard Crow nag them about not messing with the locals enough that they ignored it, not like the brat could do anything to them anyways as long as they didn't start raiding the town.

The only one left by Crow on the dock was the first mate, who didn't trust their Captain not to get into trouble while they were in town just as much as Crow trusted the crew. Crow just gave him a sidelong glare and walked into town, deciding he'd lose him later when the streets got more crowded. If there was one thing the young pirate captain was good at, it was hiding. Late night games of hide and seek weren't uncommon on the ship, and there hadn't been a soul yet to find Crow before morning. The first mate didn't stand a chance.

However, as Crow quickly realized, Garnet didn't have enough people to make the job of sneaking off any easier, even the market was pretty close to empty when Crow walked through it. Crossing his arms, the cat eyed teen continued walking slowly through the small street, as if looking at what was in the stalls that lined the sides around him. However, when he turned and started walking towards a stall, as if going to look at something, in a flash of purple he was running down an alley before the first mate even noticed. Though when he noticed the sudden fact that his captain was no longer there, he took off running after him…down straight through the alley missing a side way that Crow had slipped into.

The teen rolled his eyes and started walking. "Moron, I'm over here."

* * *

Even after the boat docked, the church bells continued ringing, as if in hope that it would scare the pirates off. Seto knew they wouldn't, the warning was just for show, and everyone knew it. Garnet was too small for the military to try and protect unless it helped them in return, so pirates just did as they pleased when they were in town usually. Seto sighed, backing up from the window. "Two black feathers….I wonder who they are?" Down at his feet, a large Somali named Hazel meowed, calling his attention from the bay down to herself. The boy chuckled, kneeling down and stroking its back as it purred up at him.

Then the thought occurred to him that if the cats were coming randomly into the room he had somewhat claimed, it meant Ren was out, and that he should put out the fire before one of the cat's hair caught on fire. If that happened, Ren would probably toss not only the fireplace, but Seto into the ocean. Seto was pretty sure how the fire place would fare, but he himself couldn't swim and did not want to chance it.

After kicking some dirt over the fire until it went out, Seto walked out of the room that was not his back into the main back part of the store, where the floor was wooden and the walls were covered with trinkets Ren couldn't bear to part with. He noticed, off on one shelf, she had brought the seven bells in from the store again. Pink, purple, orange, red, blue, silver and yellow…Seto always wondered what their significance was and why they continued to go back and forth from being on sale or off the shelf as if Ren wanted to be rid of them, but at the same time couldn't bear to part with them. She didn't do this with any other item in the store which always made him wonder what was so special about them.

I'll ask Ren when she gets back, the boy decided nodding to himself, turning briefly back to the room that wasn't his, as if he forgot something. "Since Ren isn't here…" He said quietly, crouching and reaching behind a pile of broken toys, pulling his hand out holding a book titled Pirate Isle. He looked down at Hazel "You won't tell, right?" The cat meowed, nuzzling his hand. Seto smiled softly and scratched the cat behind its ears, thinking that maybe if Batty liked him as much as Hazel, he wouldn't be in debt anymore.

Walking back out of the room, he started towards the front of the shop, stopping just at the small archway in the hall where wood gave way to dirt and the silence of the back gave way to a more comfortable silence of the front of the shop. He couldn't really compare the temperature of either part, since both gave him chills. He had already decided that the room that he had kind of claimed even though it didn't belong to him was the warmest room in the building, fire or not.

But he did think that the front of the shop was the brightest out of the entire building, light from the sun or the moon even on cloudy nights always seemed to shine in through the large windows that exposed Ren's wares to passers by. It was as if the light was trying to rekindle the memories of the items that lay on the shelf, memories of a past life unknown to all but the items themselves. Well, that was what Seto liked to think, at least.

Sitting himself down on the divide of wood and dirt, Seto opened the book up to the first page and started reading. The book was about a young boy who had somehow wandered into a part of the island where unbeknownst to the islanders pirates had docked to fix their ship after a particularly bad battle out at sea. The boy ends up running into the young, bully of a captain who tricks him out of one of his prized possessions after quick firing questions at him that the other never got the chance to answer.

"'I chased after him, calling "Give that back to me!" over and over, but the boy always seemed to be one step ahead of me, dodging whenever I got close enough to grab him, and continuously laughed at my futile efforts to catch up to him, as if this was all just a game to him. And perhaps it was a game, because at some point I quit calling after him, and we both laughed as the chase went on. But he wasn't laughing at me anymore, or at least it didn't seem like it. He was laughing because he was having fun, in this game we played. We played until the sun began to set against the horizon, the boy jumping up on top of a large rock by the shoreline, a small line of sand retreating behind it into the ocean.

I began to climb, and above me the boy held just out of reach what he'd stolen, calling down "Give up already!" as I drew closer to the top.'" Seto stopped reading to Hazel for a second and looked around, thinking he heard the bell in the shop ring and a customer come in. However, aside from Hazel at his feet, he was alone on the store divide. The red head frowned in confusion, before shrugging it off and going back to the book, noticing Hazel looking at him lazily as if the cat wanted him to continue.

"'I reached the top, grabbing for the other's ankle, only to have it sashay out of reach closer to the edge as I unsteadily climbed up, standing slightly off balanced on the rock. "Ha ha! Catch me if you can!" The boy taunted, hopping backwards as I made a grab for what was mine. "Give it back!" I said, again grabbing towards him, only to have him step back out of my reach. And then suddenly, he was falling backwards off the rock, letting go of what he'd stolen as he fell, and I caught it as he hit the beach below very ungracefully. Climbing down as fast as I could, I hurried over to him to check if he was injured or not, only to have him sit up and look at me with a playful smile.

"Looks like you won this round." He told me, holding his hand out. At first, I didn't understand the gesture, but I took his hand in mine and smiled "Looks like I did." And I think that could have been the first budding of friendship between him and me, because I realized that all he really wanted was a friend.'" Again, Seto stopped reading and hid the book behind his back before the door even opened. When the bell rang, it turned out to just be Ren coming inside. But she wasn't alone, an older man was following after her, and on his arms were tattooed two black feathers crossing in an X.

"R-Ren…! That man, he's-"Ren turned and smiled, apparently not sensing the danger she had more then likely put herself and Seto in.

"Oh Seto, good. I don't have to call for you then." She said, before gesturing towards the pirate who was standing cross armed beside her "This man calls himself Vulture; he came in with the ship a little while ago. I saw him wandering lost on the way back from the fortune teller's house, you haven't by chance seen a young boy in purple with weird yellow eyes since you've been out here have you?" Seto blinked, and shook his head.

"I haven't seen anyone, and no one's come in the shop since you left..." He answered, not entirely honestly. There was a chance someone had slipped in earlier, the first time he'd heard the bell ring. But it had only rang once, which meant whoever it was would have had to get in and out before the door closed or else he'd have heard a second bell. But there'd only been that one ring, so he was pretty sure no one had come in since he'd been out here. Beside Ren, Vulture frowned at him a moment, before he sighed.

"Ah well, brat couldn't have got too far." He muttered, momentarily scanning the tables with no apparent interest. Emphasis on the word apparent, Seto noted idly watching the man.

"Mister, if he's not here you should keep looking for him." Seto said, earning a glare from Vulture and an odd look from Ren. The man clicked his tongue, but he didn't reply as he walked out the door, the bell tinkling as the door closed. From the other side of the room, Ren was still giving him an inquisitive look.

"What's up, Seto? It's not like you to tell someone to leave the store." The boy fidgeted under her steady gaze, angling his head downwards away from her.

"He was going to do something bad." He said simply, hearing Ren start walking on the dirt floor to examine the tables, like she usually did when she got back from town. The silver haired girl didn't question him, having learned, as stated, that Seto seemed to have an intuition about this sort of thing. Just as he had unasked questions for her, she had questions for him as well. Questions that would have to wait, however.

"Seto, are you sure no one stopped by while I was out?" She asked, looking over the jewelry table with an apparent frown. Seto shook his head.

"No one." He told her again, now pondering the possibility that maybe someone had actually managed to get in and out in one bell ring. Ren turned her head to look at him skeptically, still frowning as she turned her head back towards the able.

"The silver ring," She said, pointing at a spot on the table that apparently had some sort of meaning "The one with the skull on it, it's not here anymore." Seto blinked and walked over, Pirate Isle now hanging in his hand in plain view, if Ren had been paying attention and not preoccupied with the missing ring.

Seto scanned over the table, seeing the usual items. The flower clip, some smaller flower hair pins, different types of rings, but Ren was right; the skull ring was not on the table. Hesitantly, Seto let his eyes wander over to the shop door, which was only about five feet from the table they were standing at.

There was no way….it just wasn't possible.

But then what had happened to the ring?

* * *

It wasn't _his_ fault, Crow decided, but the ring's for shining so brightly in the sun.

He'd seen it while walking back out into one of the smaller side streets that he'd come to after wandering the maze of alleys the Garnet had. "Garnet fits this place so well." He muttered, looking up and down the street for possible signs of his first mate before he stepped out of his hiding place. One thing he was quickly starting to notice about the town, the majority of the back streets were empty of people.

Or maybe they just haven't found their way back here, he thought, walking up the road as he felt boredom begin to sink in. He was tiring very quickly of this town, with its small population and serious lack of entertainment. He was a pirate, they should have been groveling at his feet in fear and doing his bidding. Or something.

It was as he brooded over this thought that he'd seen the ring, noticing a silver gleam as he walked past what he soon realized was a small shop. The appearance of the first shiny thing he'd seen in this entire place quickly catching his interest, he walked up close to the window. Could this place really be considered a shop? He wondered, noticing the obvious lack of flare and people. Or, almost lack of people. The shiny object in the window was not the only thing to catch his attention, but the fact that there was someone in the shop! It was a boy in a bright turquoise coat, or at least he thought he was a boy, with long maroon colored hair that made him nearly pass for the opposite gender.

He had a book in his lap where he sat with a cat on his feet, and the pirate wondered if he owned the shop or just worked there. Crow was curious and wondering now, watching the boy who seemed very immersed in the book. His lips were moving, but the pirate couldn't hear him through the glass. Was he reading to the cat?

What sort of weirdo have I stumbled onto? Crow thought, snickering as he pressed his ear up against the window, trying to hear the boy's voice through it. Other then the fact that his ears were pointed; they served a purpose other then looking weird.

Crow was actually surprised to hear what was being said on the other side of the glass, he knew the words that were coming out of that boy's mouth. He knew the story that was being read. He'd read it dozens of times when he was younger and even after he became captain, but it seemed as if the boy had just started reading it judging by how far at the beginning he was. And for awhile, he stood there in the shade of a cloud with his ear against the window listening to the familiar words being said on the other side of the glass, deciding that whoever this kid was seriously lacked the necessary enthusiasm to make the story sound as exciting like he himself could do.

And then the sun came out from behind the cloud, and Crow was reminded of why he'd come over here in the first place. Shiny object on the table.

Walking over to the door, Crow kept an eye on the red haired boy out of the corner of his eye as he carefully opened the door. The bell jingled above him.

"Shit!" Crow closed the door quickly, thankfully not hearing the bell ring again as he did so. On the other side of the door, he heard the boy stop reading, more than likely having heard the bell ring and expecting a customer. The teen waited, something he was surprisingly good at from games of hide and seek, and listened, waiting for the boy to start reading again. He did after a few minutes, and a bit after that Crow opened the door again, reaching up to silence the bell as he entered, watching the boy. He hadn't moved, but the cat opened its eye lazily to look at him. They stood there in a stare off as the red haired boy read quietly off to the side, unaware of the silent battle of wills going on in front of him. Finally, the hairy feline blinked at him, before yawning and closing its eyes, listening again to the young boys dull words read from the book.

With a mental sigh of relief, Crow carefully kept the door open with his foot and reached across to where the shiny object lay amidst dozens of other pieces of jewelry and accessories, and grabbed it off the table. Upon closer inspection (which was done while still holding the door open) he noted that the 'shiny object' was actually a silver ring with a skull engraved into it.

Just my style, Crow thought smirking, slipping the ring onto his finger before giving the boy another glance. He was tempted, very temped to call out to him, to point out the fact that he'd just been robbed and hadn't been aware of it, but then Crow had a thought, which turned his smirk predatory. Closing the shop door carefully, being sure to not let the bell ring, Crow now stood outside the door examining his prize in the sunlight as he faintly listened to the boy continue on as if nothing had happened.

The ring now held another purpose aside from being shiny, and Crow intended to put it to use.

Hours later after Vulture had left the shop and the crew had mostly returned to the ship for the night, Crow announced that they'd be staying another night in the town so they could get a better feel for it for the raid. As the crew cheered, Crow held his new ill gotten treasure up against the moonlight.

It wasn't _his_ fault, he decided, it was the boy's for reading one of his favorite stories.

End Chapter

I probably exaggerated a few things in this one, such as Seto's serious obliviousness of his surroundings and Crow's thing for shiny objects, but I like how it turned out. I figured Ren would have a hard time parting with the bells, also, considering their back story in the game. There's also a very good reason I brought Pirate Isle into play for this story, which shall be revealed in time.

So, good or bad? I typed in a lot smaller print when I write this, so I think it came out longer.

Until next time~!

**EDIT**: Edit two, finished! Basically the same aside from a few altered lines and some indenting. I didn't realize until I was going back through how blocky it looked. Also, something I left out previously, a Garnet is meant to help you stay on path and not get lost. The town name is supposed to be ironic.


	3. Morning in Pandemonium

Chapter 3 "Morning in Pandemonium"

The night in Garnet passed slowly. The church bells tooled their warning throughout the night. Most of the town was still on edge with the pirate ship docked at the bay, and the majority of the town still had its lights on, and was the defensive in case of a late night attack, even though it seemed as though the pirates were already asleep for the night. But the majority wasn't taking any chances, however the minority…

Back in Ren's shop, Seto had just finished getting the cats their dinner and was now walking around the shop, sandwich in hand, blowing out candles for the night so one of the cats wouldn't knock one off and set the house/shop on fire in the night. Ren had gone to bed, after finally deciding that Seto had _not_ stolen from her and the ring was no where in the vicinity of the shop. She had gone to bed early so she could hunt down Vulture and beat it out of him that he'd stole it right after chewing out Seto for realizing it too late. Seto, on the other hand, had a different theory. A theory he couldn't explain very well to Ren, however.

Taking a bite of his (stolen) tuna sandwich he double checked everything, making sure the front door was locked and all the candles were out before going back to the room Ren was loaning him. Following behind him was none other then Hazel, trailed by Batty who he was sure was after his tuna. He'd left the fire going in the room, which was now warm and welcoming despite the scary shadows it was casting on the walls thanks to the random piles of junk.

Seto sat down on his blanket bed and yawned, holding his hands up the fire. Hazel rubbed against his leg, while on the other side of him Batty was stealing away with a large chunk of his dinner. Which Seto didn't mind, he'd expected as much to happen. He'd get the cat back for it later, but he wanted to talk to Hazel without Batty eavesdropping. He really had been hanging out with the cat lady too long…

"That Vulture guy, he may not have been a good guy, but he didn't steal the ring." He told the Somali as he scratched behind her ears "He was going to do something bad...but his colors didn't match what Ren's accusing him of." Looking up at him, Hazel meowed as if in reply, but Seto didn't know what the cat was saying. Ren would know probably, she always seemed to. It was as if she'd been around the cats long enough to understand them, which was exactly why he didn't want Batty listening in on him. Hazel was the only cat he trusted that Ren kept around the place.

The cat had seen him steal Pirate Isle off the shelf, and he had been worried Hazel would tell Ren somehow that it was his fault it was gone, but Ren never came for the book and just complained it had went missing and only initially blamed Seto for it. But she hadn't found it, like she probably would have done if it had been Batty who'd seen him, or any of the other cats.

Again, the cat meowed up at him, and the boy patted its head. "You know when the bell rang earlier today, like someone came in?" He asked, not expecting an actual answer from the cat "Do you think it's possible for someone to get in and out so quickly? If they were hiding in the store I would've noticed, right?" Again, the cat just looked up at him for a moment before laying its head on his thigh. Seto sighed and scratched her head again, before pulling the cat off his leg to stand and kick dirt over the fire so he could go to bed.

Even after the fire was out, the room kept its accumulated warmth and the blankets by the fire were even warmer as Seto lay beneath them, and Hazel settled down near by his hand. The cat nuzzled his hand, making him smile softly before curling up in the blankets and going to sleep.

And so, as the town stayed up in wait of a pirate raid that would not come that night, the young indebted boy slept soundly listening to the dying crackle of charred wood.

* * *

Morning came to the sleep deprived town, the sun rising steadily above the ocean covering the town in a hue that only the morning dawn seemed to be able to create. Crow always found it strange, how much the world changed just because of the rising and setting of the sun. The world always looked the same at night; he liked the moon better then the sun. After all, it was his map. Hopping down from the crow's nest, he landed easily on the deck. It was too early in the morning for the rest of his crew to be up yet, even his first mate was still in an alcohol induced slumber right now. They wouldn't be up for another few hours, maybe not even until noon.

_Fine by me, not like I need them trailing me all freakin' day. Morons,_ Crow rolled his eyes as he walked down to the dock, noting with slight dissatisfaction that the bells had quit tolling in the night. He decided that they were either stupid for thinking that his crew wasn't a threat, or that everyone had just gotten tired of the bells. He'd kept watch on and off through the night, for most of it the town was bright with light and full of scared townspeople. Even when he'd finally gone to bed after he was sure that his entire drunken and disorderly crew was back, he didn't doubt that the town hadn't slept much with them at port.

With that thought in mind, Crow snickered as he went into town. He had some mapping out he needed to before the crew started stalking him, he needed to find that shop again. After all, how could he _possibly _live with himself if he didn't at least rub it in the maroon headed kid's face that he was an oblivious fool? His conscience just wouldn't allow it.

But re-finding that damn shop was proving to be harder then he'd thought. Yesterday he'd found it by accident, but he quickly realized that just looking for it was not going to work. Hell, he couldn't even find the random street he'd escaped into away from Vulture the day before, how was he going.

"You're Crow, aren't you?" The boy in question jumped, turning around to see who exactly was questioning him. It was a girl, who looked about his age with short silvery hair and wore a tattered, purple dress. She was watching him with bright, expectant eyes, which made the young captain wonder who the hell she was, and how exactly she knew his name.

"None of your business who I am, get lost." The girl giggled, and Crow's eye twitched. Again he asked himself, who the hell was girl?

"There's no use denying it," She said suddenly, circling him like a cat would its prey "You match the description he gave me perfectly. Weird yellow eyes, all dressed in purple and pointy ears. If not you then who?" Crow blinked. He who? Maroon haired kid? But he hadn't even looked up at him! And how would this girl know the maroon kid anyways?"You're the guy Vulture was looking for yesterday, right?" She asked, smiling brightly.

"Eh?" Crow looked at her blankly, now feeling suddenly disappointed. That boy really was oblivious to everything f he knew this girl "That's why you're asking? You must be an idiot if you've been looking for me this entire time." He told her bluntly, crossing his arms in a superior manner that somehow really didn't suit him well. The girl in front of him pouted.

"Stupid, I wouldn't waste my time chasing down some pirate brat." Again, Crow's eye twitched. How dare this wench call him a brat! "I just recognized you from the description, and it just so happens that I'm looking for your friend Vulture."

"First off, he's not my friend. Second, why are you looking for a moron like him? Did he not pay you for last night or something?" Crow asked, smirking at the girl as she just rolled her eyes at him and kicked him in the shin pretty hard. He acted like he didn't notice.

"No idiot, he stole something from me and I want it back!" Crow looked at her, waiting for her to elaborate "He came to my shop yesterday so we could ask my shop hand, Seto, if he'd seen you. But when the jerk left I noticed that the skull ring I had on display was missing!" Crow had a brief moment to wonder if the Gods above were trying to help him. The moment passed quickly though, as he remembered that he was not at all the type to believe in all that crap and barely kept the smirk off his face. He could not believe his luck.

"I see…" He replied, nodding in mock understanding while a plan formulated within his head. "Well, I can say pretty easy that he'll come looking for me again in a few hours. How about I just hang around your shop till then?"

"Other then the fact that you'll be pretty much loitering, how does you staying there help anything?" She asked, eyeing him suspiciously. Crow sighed. So slow, this wench was.

"To put it simply, you need Vulture to come by. Vulture will look all over town for me, regardless if I stay in one place or not. So at some point, he'll probably stop by your store and you'll have him to interrogate as you please. Make sense or do you need the dumbed down version?" The silverette tried to kick him in the shin again, but Crow managed to dodge fairly easily this time around, but he got the message. "Lead the way, wont you Miss…?" The girl huffed, turning on her heel and starting off in the complete opposite direction Crow had been going previously. Shrugging, he started walking after her.

Didn't her mother teach her any manners? He thought with a scowl, turning a corner after her that he'd originally disregarded. It was obvious the girl was not going to talk to him during their journey through the maze that led to her shop, which was fine with Crow. The wench was annoying, and she called him a brat! He should have slit her throat for that.

But she starting to get ahead of him now, plans for murder would have to wait.

* * *

Seto yawned, stirring the mixture of chicken and tuna in front of him as it cooked on the stove. Ren had gone out earlier in the day to hunt around for that Vulture guy, and her instructions upon leaving had been to feed the cats and keep an eye on the shop. Which was exactly what he was doing, but the cats were being incredibly picky today. Very few of them had eaten just the plain chicken or tuna he had set down for them, or any of the other types of cat food he had sat down. At one point, one of the York Chocolates had started pushing together the two plates of chicken and tuna, so Seto had mixed the two together. Still no luck with the majority, then the same York Chocolate meowed towards the stove so he decided to warm the food up.

And that was pretty much how his entire day had been going; since Ren had left he'd been left to do the bidding of all of the cats in the shop. So he was incredibly hopeful when he sat down the plate of cooked chicken and tuna for the cats to eat, they sniffed at it, a few took a bite. All but the York Chocolate left it alone. Seto sighed dejectedly; these cats were going to lead him to an early grave, he just knew it.

Officially out of ideas, he looked down at the cats, which looked up expectantly at him, and ran a hand through his hair trying to think. And then the cats began to converge on him, like a mob they meowed at him hungrily and he took a few steps back from the miniature crowd. He was surrounded, with his only means of escape completely blocked by a gang of large Bobtails.

And then the bell on the front door rang.

"Se-to!" It was Ren. Immediately the mob disintegrated in front of his eyes out the door where he could hear loving meows coming from a behind the walls. He let out a sigh of relief, quickly looking at the messy, fish covered kitchen, and deciding he'd clean it later. As he left the kitchen, he silently hoped that the kitchen wouldn't smell terrible by the time he got around to it. Stepping over cats that now blocked his way to the store; he maneuvered himself to the door and stuck his head out from one of the sides.

"Welcome back Ren." He greeted, stumbling slightly over the remaining cats into the store completely. He blinked, Ren wasn't alone. The person standing next to her was a boy clad in a weird purple outfit, complete with a hat that covered what he guessed was spiky black hair. But he made Seto…uneasy. He looked a lot like a cat, and after nearly being mobbed by all of Ren's could have possibly just made him paranoid. But the boy had cat like eyes, they were yellow and narrowed and they were watching him. He also noticed that he had pointy ears like a cat, and when the boy grinned at him (in a very catty fashion) he noticed he had very pointy canines that he was sure weren't normal. All in all, he was feeling very uncomfortable under this cat like boy's gaze, and he just knew he was up to something.

Ren grinned, and gestured over to the boy with her hand "Seto, this is Crow. He's the one Vulture was looking for yesterday, and apparently he'll come looking again so Crow's staying here until then." She explained briefly, side glancing Crow as she spoke "But I have to get back into town for a little bit, you don't mind keeping him company till I get back do you?"

"Umm…" Before Seto could answer, the boy named Crow cut him off.

"That won't be a problem at all, especially if he's as nice as you are _Ren_." Ignoring the sarcastic comment, Ren waved goodbye briefly and walked back out the door, the jingling bell signifying that yes, he was alone in an uncomfortable atmosphere with a complete stranger who was watching him expectantly. "You're Seto, right?"

"Y-yeah, why?"

"And what kind of name is that, huh?" Crow asked, and Seto quickly noticed how close the other had gotten without him even noticing. He moved fast, very fast… "I go by a lot of things, Captain, King but like your friend said you can call me Crow. C-R-O-W. Got it memorized?" Seto nodded quickly.

"Uh, sure. Crow." The captain stepped back and looked away in a cold manner.

"Don't act like we're friends." Wasn't planning on it, Seto thought. But he kept his thoughts to himself. Crow was circling him again; he could feel those yellow cat eyes watching him closely even though the other boy was behind him, out of view "Where are you from?" That was sudden. Seto turned to look back at Crow, only to see that he wasn't behind him anymore. Frowning, Seto turned back. Crow was in front of him, still looking expectant. He was really fast. "I asked you a question."

"Somewhere pretty far west of here…" He answered quietly, wondering what had brought on the sudden questioning. Didn't Crow just say they weren't friends?

"What are you doing here?" Another personal question he was expected to answer, Seto frowned at the other. He didn't understand the point in any of this.

"I'm just traveling east, but I got in debt so-"

"Why're you in debt?" Oh, so now his _answers_ were being interrupted?

"One of Ren's cats helped me out a while back so-"

"You were so incapable of doing something yourself that a cat had to do it for you?" Crow asked, making Seto flinch slightly at the tone of his voice.

"Well, I wouldn't say that…"

"But right now you're in debt to the cat right? It must have been something big that it did for you or else you wouldn't be here right?" He asked snidely, waving his hand around indicating he meant the store. And that's when Seto saw it, a silver gleam on his hand that had caught the sun in its current owner's reign of insults. Crow continued questioning him, and made snide remarks when he didn't answer, but Seto barely heard them. It was already apparent that Crow was fast, but was he fast enough…?

A purple/black, gloved hand snapped in front of his face. "Are you even listening to me?" Crow asked "Here I am insulting your very person and you're just standing there staring out into space. What are you, stupid?" Seto glared at him slightly in response. It was a facial feature he was not used to using though, so it didn't look very threatening. Crow just smirked at him in response.

"That ring on your finger isn't yours." The boy said flatly, and for a moment Crow just looked at him blankly and lifted his hand to his face, examining it. Crow smiled, pulling off the skull ring and dangling it in Seto's face.

"You mean this ring? He asked, feigning innocence as he swung it back and forth by the bend "I found this onboard the ship last night, figured I'd keep it. But now I wonder, is this the ring your friend was talking about? You should thank me for bringing it back then." Seto shook his head.

"You didn't find it, you stole it." He stated, with a small confidence Crow had yet to see while he was taunting the boy. "You know you stole it, and you were going to let your friend take the fall for it." Crow resisted the urge to correct him on the status of his and Vultures non-existent relationship. The boy was bluffing, there was no way he could know. He hadn't even been paying attention.

"So you think I'm lying, do you?" The pirate captain asked, his smirk taunting Seto with the fact that he couldn't prove anything. However, Seto's response was not expected.

Seto nodded meekly, but when he said flat out "I know you are." There wasn't an ounce of doubt in his voice. Crow just had to laugh. Here was this small, weak looking kid who probably hadn't fought a day in his life, making such bold accusations towards someone so obviously stronger then him. Crow found it hilarious. Seto did not.

The maroon haired boy made a grab for the ring, which Crow easily kept from his grasp by simply putting it back on "Its not yours, you need to give it back." Seto told him. Crow just rolled his eyes.

"Oh yeah? And who's gonna make me? Not gonna be you, I can be sure of that." Crow replied, waving the hand with the ring on it in front of Seto's face "But if you really want it…" Seto's face momentarily lit up "You gotta do something for me." And then it fell again. Crow rolled his eyes. "C'mon, it's nothing big. I just want to play…a game."

"A…game?" Seto asked, watching the other warily. He didn't like where this was going.

"Yes, a game. You do know what that is right? Or was I right in calling you an idiot?" Again, Seto failed to glare at him. Crow took this as the cue to go on "Just one or two games. Sound fair? You can choose what we play." Seto frowned uncertainly.

"Alright…how about…" Seto took a second to think about it. He didn't play very many games, and the only one he knew Ren said he played with the cats. But Crow was kind of like a cat, how he moved and how he looked. It couldn't be so different could it? "Hide and go seek." This boy is full of surprise, Crow thought with a mental smirk.

"Alright," he said, holding his hand out for Seto to take "Hide and seek it is. I don't know my way around town, so how about you choose the playground? Knowing the field should be enough of a handicap shouldn't it?" Seto rolled his eyes and started walking, blatantly not taking the hand offered as he walked to the door. Wondering why people he kept running into in this town disliked him so much, Crow shrugged and followed him out the door.

* * *

Saying that Seto had the home field advantage in this game, Crow soon found out, was a very large misunderstanding on his part. It was after hitting many dead ends and just ending up in random streets while trying to find the main square that Seto admitted that during his two month stay he hadn't really traveled much away from Ren's shop aside from dropping things off at the fortune teller's house, which was nowhere near the main square.

"I can't believe you've been here for two months and you have no idea where you're going." He commented as they turned away from another dead end. Then he added "I can't believe you've been in debt to a **cat** for two months." Seto grumbled something under his breath that Crow didn't catch as he started walking again in a new direction.

The two were hopelessly lost, and had retraced their steps at least a dozen times while walking the Garnet alleyways. However, Crow was intent on letting Seto try and find the main square, even though he kept turning them in the wrong direction. And it definitely wasn't just because Crow didn't know his way around, that wasn't it at all. Or at least, Crow wouldn't admit to it. "Are you sure you know where we're going?" Seto turned and narrowed his eyes at him.

"If you're so intent on pointing out my bad navigation skills, why don't you try finding the main square." He replied sharply, his patience beginning to wear thin from the older boy's near constant berating him. However, the teen in question just smiled pleasantly.

"And miss the chance to point out how directionally challenged you are?" He asked innocently "Not gonna happen, keep looking." Shaking his head at the other, Seto kept walking and Crow followed dutifully behind and throughout the trip made many snide remarks that were just as dutifully ignored. The majority of all of their conversations over the total of another two and a half hours that it took to find the main square went something like:

"Why is your hair so long? I thought you were a girl when I saw you for the first time."

No response.

"And what's with the big coat? Its so baggy…just makes you look smaller then you already are."

From Seto, there was a twitch, but no response.

"There really is nothing masculine about you. Compared to me, who's so much cooler and stronger, there really is no comparison."

And so on and so forth until by some fluke on Seto's part they stepped out into the main square of Garnet, which now had more people in it then Crow had seen throughout the entire town. For a second it made him think that this town was actually a lot bigger then it really was, there were a lot of people.

The buildings surrounding the main square, ironically made it more circular in shape with stands that sold food around the outer part of the circle. You could almost say…the main square/circle was divided into layers. The outside was random food venders selling things on sticks and fruit and what Crow thought at first was some type of jerky (he couldn't tell from a distance).

The next layer was made of a ton of different types of people in ranging ages who were buying from venders or just talking about random topics such as the weather or the pirate ship in the harbor (when he overheard that Crow couldn't help but grin).

The next layer was what he assumed to be mostly parents who were all talking to each other and watching the children in the inner layer of the square/circle while, again, talking about miscellaneous things.

The layer after that was full of children playing in the small streams of runoff that were cut into the stone that made up the ground in the circle, the little streams were about two feet wide and at points had bridges crossing them where children sat and dangled their feet into the water.

And at the center layer was where the runoff that made the streams was coming from, a moderately sized stone fountain. This was where he and Seto walked to after the maroon haired boy thanked his lucky star that he'd found their destination finally, and Crow noticed that the fountain was filled with things ranging from coins to small toys.

Seto sat on the edge of the fountain and sighed, feeling tired after walking and dealing with Crow for three hours. Crow wasn't feeling tired at all because he wasn't weak like Seto, but he took a seat next to the boy by the fountain and watched the people milling around them.

"So this is where all of you are, I'll have to keep that in mind." He muttered, and Seto gave him and odd look out of the corner of his eye. They sat in silence for a few minutes, listening as the world continued to go about around them, until Crow stood up and stretched. Holding the hand with the ring in front of Seto's face, he smiled.

"Well c'mon then. You want this back don't you?" And so the game began.

* * *

Vulture cursed his luck, having once again gotten lost in the alleyways of Garnet like he had yesterday. Why couldn't Crow just be a good brat and do as he was told? Before long, he found himself feeling déjà vu as he walked down another street, and passed a familiar shop that he'd been in only yesterday. The one that belonged to that annoyingly chipper silver haired girl and the plain annoying maroon haired boy.

He narrowed his eyes at the shabby building. Yesterday, while he'd been in here, he'd gotten a great idea. They two who were there was just two defenseless kids, but surely they sill got business. They had to considering they were still selling stuff. This meant that they had money, probably not a lot, but enough for Vulture to put to use.

But just as he'd thought that plan, before he'd been about to put it into action, that damn boy had told him to pretty much get out.

It could be paranoia on the first mate's part, but something was up with that kid. Some weird mumbo jumbo mojo that he didn't like. He just got a bad feeling. But looking through the window it didn't look like anyone was there, there was just a long haired cat (A Somali, but he didn't know that) sitting on the empty table near the middle. A cat wasn't much of defense against a pirate of his stature, so he walked right in.

As he expected, no one came when the bell rang, or even when he called out. So the shop was empty. Perfect. But where would the money be kept? Frowning, he walked into the middle of the store and looked around, until a loud meow called his attention to the middle table. And there sat the cat, still watching him from it place on the table. He walked over.

"How about it fleabag? You know where your annoying master keeps her money?" He asked, reaching out to pet Hazel on the head. Hazel, on the other hand, was not so keen to have a pirate thief scratching her head. When Vulture's hand got within range, with a viper like motion Hazel had her sharp teeth sunk into his hand. The pirate yelled in surprise, and immediately tried to shake the cat off by flailing his hand. This only ended in Hazel having her teeth deeper in his hand, at which point he grabbed the cat by the scruff of the neck and pulled roughly. Hazel's bloody fangs came out with some resistance, leaving Vulture with two nice sized bite marks in his hands.

Seething at the cat, he tossed it at a wall above the toy table, where it hit and landed knocking off the chicken plush before darting into the back of the store. Vulture growled, examining his injured hand before following the fleeing cat into the back of the store. Vulture cursed his luck.

The room was full of cats, which were all watching him as soon as he stepped over the dirt/wood divide that separated store and living quarters. Among them he could see the cat that had just bitten him, licking his blood off its fangs with what looked like distaste. Cursing under his breath, he tried to count how many cats there were. If one had the guts to bite him, the at least fifty that were converging in the hall before him probably wouldn't hesitate either. The pain throbbing through his hand was evidence enough that these cats were just as weird as the damn kid who lived there.

That maroon haired kid…this was all his fault. Yesterday, that kid had known he was going to do something. Vulture just knew he knew somehow, there was no other reason he'd have tried to get him to leave. And now here he was, being faced with fleabags that were obviously not normal, just like the damn boy. Growling in frustration, Vulture turned and walked back out of the store, and stopped as soon as he exited the store. Glaring down at the bite on his hand, he made a silent vow to himself.

Tonight, he would lead the crew in a raid, whether Crow authorized it or not. And he would come here in the chaos, and destroy the shop. He would kill every single damned cat and their annoying owner, and take the boy captive before burning the place to the ground. He'd take the boy captive and torture him for the trouble Vulture thought he'd caused, and when the first mate was through with him he'd throw him overboard and let the sea have him. Vulture nodded to himself and set off.

He didn't notice the figure standing in the shadows watching him, or the figure vanish from sight as if he had never stood there at all.

* * *

In the town square, Seto and Crow were resting after their third game of hide and seek. A few minutes ago, Seto had found Crow holding himself up in the archway of a random door. The previous round Crow had found Seto in a barrel, and the round before that Seto couldn't find Crow at all. And now they were resting back at the fountain, and Seto sat on it thinking of places where he could hide where Crow couldn't find him.

Crow was leaning over the edge of the fountain fiddling with the skull ring, watching it shine in the sunlight that reflected off of the water. Seto realized that after another few minutes that he was watching the other, and wondered how he had gone from trying in vain to get the ring back to having fun playing with a thief. "You really like that ring, don't you?" He asked, causing Crow to look at him slightly surprised

"Of course I do, that's why I took it." He answered, the shouldn't-that-be-obvious? look on his face as he looked at the other. It didn't seem to bother him to admit that he'd stolen it now, they both knew he did. Crow didn't _know_ how Seto knew, it was something he decided to look into.

"Why didn't you just buy it like a normal person?" He asked, kicking his legs over the edge where he sat. It was kind of nice, talking to Crow and the other not making any snide remarks. And kind of weird, but a good weird, Seto thought.

"Maybe I'm just not normal, ever think of that?" Crow answered, bringing Seto out of his train of thought as he slipped the skull ring back onto his finger. Seto shrugged in reply, looking up at the sky where the clouds passed slowly over their heads. Then, in a sudden bold move, he jumped up from his spot on the fountain and turned to face Crow, who had turned and was watching him curiously.

"Well, I think we've been sitting around long enough don't you?" He asked, smiling "It's my turn to hide, you know." Crow blinked, surprised at the sudden acceptance that Seto was showing. For the first two rounds, all he'd done was complain and ask for the ring when they found each other again, and now he was asking to keep going. Crow shook his head and smirked.

"You're weird, y'know that? Now get outta my sight before I win by default." Crow watched as Seto ran off into the crowd, and even tracked him as he went through (wasn't hard, turquoise stands out). He sighed and ran a hand beneath his hat and scratched his head. Just what've I got myself into? He asked himself. "Ready or not, here I come!"

End Chapter

Vulture is becoming a lot more important in this then originally planned . I'm pretty sure this one was longer then the last chapter. Or I hope so, at least. And I hope it turned out well, I didn't like it much. And please excuse typos, they're hard to see when the print is small ^^;

Anyways! Please leave a review if you liked it and even if you didn't, it'd be nice to hear if you think I could improve on one thing or another. Until next time, everyone!

**EDIT**: I realized reading through that I had left something incredibly important out. It's there now.


	4. A Star and the Black Wings

The sun was setting by the time Seto and Crow started heading back towards Ren's shop, seemingly both completely forgot why they had been playing hide and seek in the first place. And even at the end of it all, Crow still had the ring in his possession. After leaving the square, they'd been almost completely alone, walking through the twisting maze that could only be the back alleys of Garnet, and after a fair amount of dead ends by Seto's leading, they found them back at Ren's shop as the sky started turning orange.

Seto opened the door warily, waiting for Ren to appear out of nowhere and beat him up for leaving the shop empty, but she wasn't there, and luckily the shop was in one piece, and Hazel was sitting asleep on the checkout table. "Looks like Ren is still out looking for Vulture." Seto said, walking completely into the store with Crow in tow, who closed the door unceremoniously behind him which made the bell jingle loudly. Hazel gave them a bleary, tired look. Seto sent the cat an apologetic smile which Crow scoffed at, but the cat went back to sleep.

"Well, if she's not back then how about we head back out into town? I still don't have this place mapped out yet." He stated, making to grab Seto's hand to lead him back out the door. Seto skillfully pulled his hand back out of reach. In the short time he'd known the girly boy, Crow had come to a conclusion. This kid did _not_ like being touched. He'd first noticed it back at the main circle square when Seto had been buying a snack during one of their breaks from hide and seek, he'd come up behind him and set a hand on his shoulder to say what he wanted to the lady selling food, the maroonette immediately jerked out of his hand forward to keep talking to the lady.

The second time it happened had been during another break while they were at the fountain. Crow had been laying down on the fountain edge and Seto was sitting next to it, within reach for Crow to poke the back of his head. In response, Seto moved farther down away from Crow. This egged Crow on to keep scooting around the fountain when Seto moved to poke him until Seto stood up and shoved the purple clad boy into the fountain and stalked off to buy a snack.

He should have learned his lesson after that.

But his theory about Seto and human contact had been building in the hours since.

Ren walked in, interrupting his thought process with a squee that would send most of humanity running. In her hands was a small, dim gray little fuzz ball which Seto immediately identified as a feline of some sort.

"Look what I found, isn't he adorable!" The girl squealed, making Crow take a good few steps back from the door, fearing his own safety. Ren didn't notice and held the cat out. It was indeed a small cat that was light gray in color. The only color really on it was the darker gray that tipped it's tail and the odd, star shaped patch of fur around its left eye. Seto took the cat from Ren gingerly as Crow watched the progression (he had the brief thought that he should interrupt, but he for some reason didn't against his better judgment). The ebony haired boy had a brief thought when Seto smiled cutely down at the cat. _If he was a girl, I'd kidnap him._

"Have you named it yet?" Seto asked, bringing Crow out of some unwanted(?) thoughts. Ren shook her head, and the maroon haired boy frowned thoughtfully. Now was the time for Crow to interrupt and remind them that they had company over aside from a new little cat.

"Name it Hoshi." Both turned and gave him completely different looks. Seto looked confused, while Ren had the look of 'when did he get here?' written all over her face "Hoshi?" Seto asked, not getting the meaning behind the name. Apparently Ren did though, her face lit up. "That's perfect! Nice thinking pirate." She complimented cheerily, having completely forgotten his name already. Seto didn't find this surprising, but Crow looked unhappy about it.

Seto stroked the newly named cat behind the ears, earning a tiny yawn and a pair of bleary yellow eyes open up as the small cat woke up. It hopped out of Seto's arms and landed clumsily on the check out table, and curled up next to Hazel. The larger cat simply opened it's eyes momentarily before going back to sleep.

A feeling of ease settled over the room as the three humans walked towards the back of the shop. Crow tried to put his arm around Seto's shoulders, he wasn't surprised when the younger pulled away and quickened his pace to catch up to Ren ahead of them. Crow sent the boy a small glare, which judging by the fact that he saw Seto's head begin to turn, he knew the other could feel his eyes on the back of his head.

Seto was in the back kitchen making snacks for Crow and Ren and himself while the other previously mentioned sat on the old, faded green couch Ren kept around in the back for some reason across from the cream one. Crow was sitting with his hands behind his head, admiring the random antiques that Ren had set about the room. The shelves were packed, and Crow honestly found it amazing that they did not fall and crash to the ground taking what was on them down with the fall.

"You can keep the ring." Crow nearly jumped at the sudden start of conversation from the silver haired girl.

"Excuse me?" He asked, sitting up straight at attention.

"I said you can keep the ring, the one you stole." Ren repeated, elaborating this time as if the captain had not understood the first time "If you were trying to be sneaky about it then you should have taken it off before you walked into my store." As if to prove this point, Batty hopped up onto her lap and got comfortable. Crow resisted the urge to glare at the smug looking creature. How on earth could a cat look smug, anyways?

"Why didn't you call me out on it?"

"Seto didn't say anything." Crow blinked at her, obviously confused "You've no doubt noticed his uncanny ability to tell when someone's good or bad, lying or telling the truth, that kind of thing. Since you had the ring on when you came in, Seto must have known about it, but he didn't say anything to me. There must be a reason." The pirate captain blinked in surprise at her. What happened to the violent, slightly crazy cat girl he'd met wandering the streets yesterday?

"He wont let me touch him at all, is it just me in particular or does he do that to everyone?" Crow asked, feeling that she was probably the best person to ask. She obviously knew a lot about him even though the boy had only supposedly been there for two months. Ren gave him a blank look.

"No idea, I never noticed before. He's always nice to the cats, I don't keep track of him outside the store." Obviously, by the look on his face, that was not the answer he'd been hoping for. Seto walked back in with a plate of mini crackers with different types of fish atop them and immediately noticed the slightly tense atmosphere, mainly coming from Crow.

He didn't comment and simply walked over to the other side of the couch to sit down in the middle of the two, plate in hand. Ren took one calmly off the plate and fed it to Batty, while Crow sat sulking next Seto for a reason Seto couldn't guess. He ignored it and snacked on the crackers as silence filled the room.

Crow glanced thoughtfully to the side of him where Seto sat, he couldn't move much between Ren and him, he couldn't scoot away. The pirate smirked and lifted his arm, resting it on Seto's shoulders. As predicted, the boy immediately flinched and tried not to be obvious about getting rid of the contact, but in such a small space there wasn't much he could do. He gave Crow a look.

"Could you get your arm off of me please?" He asked, and was met with a raised eyebrow as if Crow had no idea what he was doing was bothering the other.

"Why, this is what friends do, isn't it?" He asked, ignoring the peeved look he was getting from the other "Would you rather I kiss you? Friends do that too." He said, a small predatory smile playing in his lips.

Seto sunk sulking into his coat and the couch while Crow sat next to him looking triumphant. Ren rolled her eyes and smiled, scratching Batty behind the ears. Peace returned to the atmosphere as Crow and Ren ate off the plate of snacks. At some point Hazel, trailed by Hoshi, came into the room and sat on the back rest behind the sulking teen. Things were back to normal.

* * *

It was dark out now and Ren had lit candles around the shop to light it while she checked inventory and added new items she'd gotten while walking around town that day. Seto had retreated to his little room in the back, followed by Crow who was still a little high off his victory against the smaller teen. They were sitting by the little make-shift fireplace that lit the room with a familiar, warm orange glow and tinted everything slightly yellow. Even Hoshi, asleep again next to a drowsy looking Hazel, looked more colorful then he had in daylight.

Seto had pulled his knees up to his chest and was quietly watching the fire, when suddenly he felt a weight lean on him. Without looking, he knew it was Crow. He glared down at the face that held a small, contented cat-like smirk. He scooted over and Crow fell onto the dirt floor with a dull thump.

The pirate sat up and glared at him. "What'd you do that for? I was comfy you jerk." Seto rolled his eyes and got back into his usual knee to the chest position.

"Well I wasn't." It was a straight, blunt reply. Crow 'hmphed' quietly under his breath and scooted back over to sit by the other, who stayed still once he was sure Crow wasn't going to use him as a pillow again.

It was a peaceful silence, only interrupted by Crow's irritated aura. Seto closed his eyes and smiled, and then the town bells began to ring. Both boys looked up curiously towards Seto's window, where slowly but surely they could hear a commotion coming from around them. Seto heard the screaming, Crow heard the gunshots.

They heard glass break out towards the front of the store and heard Ren scream angrily. The bells could only mean one thing, pirate raid. Seto instantly looked at Crow for some sort of clarification, the Black Wings were the only pirates in town. But judging by the same look of confusion, and some mild irritation, Crow had no idea what was going on either. They both rose to their feet and ran to the front of the store, where Ren stood holding her small, personal pistol that Seto had never actually seen shot in her shaking hands.

Laying by some broken glass and a few scattered trinkets were a few groaning pirates with the Black Wings symbol on their bandanas, all with at least a few good shots to the torso from the one and only crazy cat lady. Nearby, Batty was licking a very small wound, probably from the broken glass, but possibly done by the pirates. The world would never know. Crow and Seto exchanged glances as Ren turned and glared at Crow "These are your men right, pirate?" She asked, anger evident in her voice as her hand slowly began to stop shaking.

"They're mine, but I didn't give the order to raid. Honest Ren, pirate's honor."

"You have no honor." The silverette countered with a glare. Crow put a hand over his heart.

"That stung a little Ren." He complained, but was ignored as Ren stalked out of the store, pistol in hand. Seto looked around nervously before grabbing a glass spear that had been setting in the window, that was by some miracle not broken. He was following Ren out the door. Crow sighed and pulled his sword. He couldn't just let them go alone, could he?

* * *

Crow had only seen the town at night from port, when you were actually in town going through all those long passages, the pirate captain had to admit it was kind of creepy. All the tiny buildings looked a lot taller, especially enhanced by the cloud covered moon and fire light that was coming from ahead. Though he felt slightly proud of his crew for creating such a scene, they had just chosen a really bad time to pull it.

The screaming got louder as they got deeper into town, and they were surprised when a few of the Black Wing's crossed their path on in a four way alley. They'd been taken care of quickly by Ren, whom Crow was tempted to tell to go easy on his crew, but decided against it. This was the crazy cat girl after all, going against pirates that had possibly hurt one of her cats. Ironically, thought Crow, the one who Seto was indebted to as he had learned from a conversation earlier.

He found that amusing, even if the other two did not. Seto looked very worried, though Crow quickly learned to watch his movements, when Seto increased his walking pace one of his crew members always seemed close by. He'd ask the maroon haired boy about that later, telling where people were was entirely different then telling when someone was lying. But at least the advantage saved some of his crew the wrath of Ren, since he'd go ahead and knock them out ahead of time.

Better then a bullet to the chest, he would think. But he was quickly learning from eavesdropping whose idea this raid belonged to, a certain scavenger of a first mate. Somehow, he wasn't at all surprised.

"Vulture did this?" Apparently, it came as a great surprise to Seto. Honestly, the kid had too much faith in the good of people, especially pirates it would seem. Ren did not look very surprised.

"I knew I should have gotten rid of him when I had the chance." She muttered, deliberately not answering the looks she received from her male companions. "The way he kept coming by the store, I saw him try to shop lift twice when I was following him today."

"Why were you following him? Weren't you going to go after him for stealing the ring?" Seto asked, but the look Ren gave him apparently answered the question. Crow had absolutely no idea how it answered anything though. It seemed he had a lot to learn. "Well, if we go after Vulture, would the raid stop if Crow got back in control?"

"And how to you propose we find him in all this chaos?" Crow had a point, aside from all the twisting alleys, pirates ready to attack were now wandering aimlessly around town trying to find people, who knew the town better. Through the chaos, Garnet still had a home field advantage. Crow was glad he hadn't given his crew the map he'd been making. He didn't want them using it in a raid he was not a part of. He'd probably hear it later for helping to stop it, but it'd show his stupid crew to listen to their captain.

"Ren…you said he came to the shop a lot right? He probably sent those pirates, by now wouldn't he be wondering why they didn't come back?" Crow and Ren stared blankly at him. Obviously, neither were quite used Seto making such a good point, especially in this type of situation. They both looked at each other. Ren was the one who took off running first.

"The cats." Crow nodded at his friend's explanation of the girl's behavior, and they took off running after her. But Ren was fast, they quickly lost her in the maze of Garnet and ended up at a dead end by Crow's direction. What they did end up running into while they tried to navigate was a band of Crow's pirates, who were more then keen to attack them. The pirate captain had to give Seto some credit, he didn't look it (**at all**), but he was a good fighter, even with a weapon that was supposed to be used as a decoration that could break at any given moment.

Though he came out of the battle with a gash on his cheek, Seto was relatively fine, Crow obviously faired better, looking almost completely uninjured. The younger sent the other a dirty look, which was shrugged off as Crow started walking again. He took off one of his gloves and tossed it at Seto.

"It'll bleed less if you keep pressure on it, it looks deep." The glove was clumsily caught before Seto pressed it to his cheek with a small, pained hiss. The glare slowly dissolved as they hurried quietly through the alleys, hearing faint noises all around them from town even though they were alone. The moon had come out from behind the clouds finally, lighting their way better then the dim fire light that they could see over top the buildings. Even though it helped, it made the scene a lot more unsettling.

It was by some stroke of luck that they even managed to get back to the shop, which was much more ruined from the time when they left. All of the windows out front were broken, and when they stepped inside the displays were a mess. The table full of jewelry was broken, and the lone chicken doll nearby was laying side-ways on the floor. The table with instruments was in tact, but the instruments themselves were mostly broken on the floor, while the book display looked ravaged.

Seto looked at it sadly and walked over the rubble, checking the remains to see if anything was horribly broken beyond repair. Crow looked around warily, the store was too quiet. Ren surely would have gotten here before them, she had a much better sense of direction (she'd lead them through town in the dark, after all).

All in all, it was worrying. Seto walked back over, carrying the chicken doll and the yellow flower hair pin in his open arm carefully. He looked slightly heart broken at the destruction, but kept giving wary glances towards the back of the store. And once again, Crow thought, he knows something I don't.

Crow motioned silently towards the back of the store with a jerk of his head, motioning for Seto to follow along. The boy didn't move, and the pirate captain rolled his eyes. He made a grab for the hand Seto had on his cheek, and much to both their surprise he actually managed to grab it. And then his vision exploded in white.

END CHAPTER

Uhh…hi again? Sorry this took forever, I was gone almost all of the summer and when I had computer access I couldn't exactly write shonen-ai on the computers without the fear of the wrath of religion. But I'm back now, and the next chapter is already in progress and should be out later today or tomorrow at some point if all goes correctly.

As usual, sorry if this turns out actually short. It looks a lot longer in Word I tell you.

Thanks to everyone for their reviews, I was happy to see so many people wanted this story updated so much ^^


	5. Fire

Well, that was only half true actually. Only what Crow's right eye was seeing had exploded making everything white, his left was still seeing everything normally. But literally everything his right eye was receiving was coming in white, but everything was still completely detailed like it would be normally. The shelves, the tables, the broken instruments, he could see their outlines and their shapes and every other little detail perfectly, but they had no shadows, no lines, no nothing. He honestly wondered how exactly that worked.

He looked around, feeling astonished, until he hit a wall with his normal vision. But a wall was not was he was seeing with his right eye, his right eye was seeing flames of color, a decent amount of them that he guessed were probably _behind_ the wall. One was large and had a slight human outline, it was mainly yellow and green but it was tinted all around with blacks and reds making it look slightly reminiscent to puke. The next largest was also much smaller with a more slender frame inside the flames, it had a much brighter flame. The main base of it was red and it was fringed all around with blues and grays that he didn't understand the meaning of, but it was surrounded by a multitude of dozens of tiny flames of way too many varying colors for him to discern.

A whimper of pain brought him out of his amazed stupor and turned, blinking at what he saw. In his left eye, Crow clearly saw Seto with his hand over his own left eye, looking like he was in pain, his right eye was seeing Seto covered in gray (but it could still easily be told that it was Seto), and was the most colorful thing in the room he'd seen so far that was actually in the room. But why was he in pain?

Almost trance like, Crow reached with the hand that was not currently holding Seto's and took the boy's other hand that was over his eye and uncovered it. What he saw astonished him. Again. In both his normal and the strange white vision, he was seeing the exact same thing in Seto's left eye. The usual purple was all but gone, and seemed to be replaced with a giant marble, one with the swirly design on the inside that looks cool when you roll it, a cat's eye marble. It was spinning, and at what looked like an incredibly fast pace.

It was going through more colors then Crow had ever seen in the same fire like look Crow had seen in his white eye. For the first time ever by Crow's definition, he was completely, utterly **speechless**.

That was, until, Seto abruptly jerked his hand away to cover his eye, and without seeing the unexplainable...whatever, he felt slightly back to normal. It was then he noticed Seto trying to get his other hand back out of Crow's tight grip, this just made the captain hold it tighter. To his relief, the smaller teen no longer looked like he was in pain, but he looked shaky, as if something terrible was about to happen. He just squeezed his hand tighter.

"I'm going to guess this has something to do with you avoiding all bodily contact since we've met?" He asked quietly, holding up their clasped hands as a reference. Whatever the flames were somewhere behind the wall, he did not want what was causing them to hear them and come out and attack. He didn't want something all flamey to come out an attack! Seto didn't answer him. "Can you at least tell me if those flames are dangerous?" He asked, jerking his head towards the wall. Seto looked over there hesitantly.

"Vulture is back there, he's the yellow-green one. He's happy probably because he has Ren and all the cats, but he's also mad." Crow blinked, he could tell that just from the fire? "Ren is very angry, but she's worried because some of the cats are hurt and one is badly injured. I think it's Hazel." He explained very worriedly, looking scared, and eyeing the glass spear he'd dropped. It was still in tact, was Seto planning on going back there? Crow almost rolled his eyes at himself, of course he was.

Instead he sighed and pulled his sword out with his open hand, Seto looked over at him with a surprised expression, and Crow loosened his grip on his hand. Seto had quit trying to get it back, and Crow wanted to see what else this white vision would show him. He bent down and picked up Seto's spear with his sword still in hand and held it out. Seto looked at it, and hesitantly uncovered his left eye.

It was still blazing spinning in blazing colors; it took a large amount of will power not to get lost staring at it again. The younger boy took the spear carefully and Crow started leading the way silently towards the back where the flames, and apparently his now FORMER first mate was holding a shop keeper and cats hostage.

Quietly, he said "You're explaining all the fires and stuff when this is over." His tone, no matter how quiet, left no room for argument. Seto did not reply.

* * *

Being sneaky in a trinket store was actually very hard; especially in the trail of chaos Vulture had left behind when he seemingly pillaged the store. Crow was sure that he'd left the trail of chaos on purpose, it all looked random, but there was an order if you looked closely enough. However, knowing the order did not make it any easier to avoid. Nearly twice he'd almost stepped on something that would alert the man to their presence, the closest call being an off-balance jewelry box. Seto did a very good job of keeping him off of creaky floor boards, and the ones he missed Crow was lucky enough to avoid anyways.

If their efforts were still working, their presences was still undetected by the former first mate, no matter how slow going the trip was. Crow kept watching Seto out of the corner of his eye, but seeing as the eye closest was currently in white vision, the other looked different. Aside from the gray flames and severe lack of color though, he could read the other's face easily. He had noticed that whatever the red brunette was feeling showed easily on his face, the boy was an open book with large print and pictures that could be read by anyone.

It wasn't nice, it was annoyingly blunt, but it was also very true. Though, to the other he had to guess he looked a lot the same. Did all living things have these flames? What did his look like, he wondered? He'd ask Seto later, once all of this was resolved.

Crow peeked his head around the corner where the flames seemed to be with his normal eye, it was the room they had been having snacks in earlier that same day. What he saw made him very angry, and he made double sure to make sure Seto did not see what he was seeing. Though judging by the squeeze his hand got, the younger could guess it was nothing good. Vulture was standing there with his back towards the entry way, laughing at Ren who was tied up on the floor trying in a vain attempt to break free of her bindings.

The cats were scattered about the room, some on their sides looking injured, while others were in an offensive position to guard Ren, and others yet still were sitting about the room watching the scene. Scanning the room, he noticed two things that unsettled him, that he knew were Seto's fault entirely for making him worry.

One of the injured cats was very close by to Vulture, and was obviously the most injured considering he could see the gashes in its long, long fur as it lay there silently. He recognized the cat instantly, it was the one Seto seemed to care about the most and the one he'd had an unofficial staring contest with a few days prior, the cat that was named after some sort of nut. Hazel, that was it.

The second thing was that no where in the room did he see a small little gray fur ball with a star over it's eye, Hoshi was currently not with all of the other cats. Where had the kitten gotten off to when all the other cats were in here? He'd figure at least that Hoshi would be by Hazel, it didn't take a genius to figure out that the smaller cat adored for the Somali from the moment the kitten had come into the store.

It was Ren who noticed them at the door first, and the pirate had to giver her props, she made no movement other then a very brief flicker of her eyes towards the door where less then half of Crow's face was showing. The cats didn't move, which he didn't find surprising. During their games Seto had explained Ren's odd ability to communicate with the cats and every single one was as loyal as a soldier to her.

Mentally, Crow decided that the moment he walked into the stupid trinket shop and stole the skull ring that he had gotten himself into some seriously weird situation that he had lost the chance to get out of a long time ago. This happened to him too damn much.

Quietly and quickly he pulled Seto to the other side of the door frame, and Seto caught a brief glance of what was happening in the room. He slammed his eyes shut and let Crow take control if the situation. The captain noticed this, and wondered if Seto had seen something he hadn't been looking for. He'd been watching the scene with his normal eye, what had Seto seen in white? He looked past the door frame again with his right eye, wondering what had scared Seto. Once he looked, he had a fairly good idea.

Vulture in the white vision would give anyone nightmares. From a distance in the flames, he looked human, but up close he clearly was _not_. Crow had no idea what sort of creature he was looking it. For one thing, white vision Vulture had no legs. No, what was holding him up were fingers placed around his torso like spider legs…like, a giant finger spider or something. He had four arms, two of which were in front of him while the other two just seemed to dangle next to him, also gigantic fingers, his head even looked finger like from behind. The last thing about the creature that seemed to be Vulture, he was blue.

Not the cold kind of blue you get from standing in the cold for too long, white vision Vulture was the color of a _bruise. _And from what Crow could tell, he was also naked, but nothing was showing. He had to thank some non-existent God for that. Through the monster Vulture he could see a dim, silver gray sort of flame like the one Seto gave off, and somewhere in the pit of his stomach he knew what it was with a certain dread.

He gave Seto's hand a squeeze and looked back at the younger, who opened his eyes and seemed to know what Crow was asking. Crow let go of Seto's hand. Instantly, the white world dissolved into the dank, drab and dark hallway they were in and Seto's eyes returned to their normal purple. Crow looked back into the room, where the normal looking Vulture stood, and thought what Seto must see on a day to day basis and if the people were all as grotesque as his former first mate, though Ren had looked normal enough besides being on fire.

He looked back and nodded at Seto once and walked slowly into the room, trailed silently by his friend. Vulture did not move. Crow unsheathed his sword that made a quiet, sliding noise and poised it ready for battle, and behind him Seto did the same. Vulture finally turned, the glint of his sword being the first thing they noticed in his hands. Vulture gave them a pleasant smile laced with malice behind his eyes.

"Glad to see you could make it Captain, you even brought that odd boy. You did something right for once." Crow growled, and Seto went to take a step forward, but halted as Vulture waved a warning finger at him. "Ah ah ah…get to close and something might happen to the young one." He said, his voice hiding a definite threat. Crow felt his dread grow, he had been right about the small, gray fire he had seen mixed in with Vulture's. Cradled carefully in the man's arm was a small gray fluff ball that seemed nearly dead to the world with the only sign of life being the small movement of its breathing.

In his arm was cradled a sleeping Hoshi.

They stood at a stand still for a few good minutes, Crow looking pissed off beyond all belief and Vulture looking as smug as Batty generally did. Neither made a moved, until Vulture gently brought his hand up and stroked the top of the kitten's head. "Somehow, I knew this one was the right one." He explained absently, as if petting the feline took some sort of will power that he lacked at the moment "It gives off the same strange vibe as the boy, you know? I noticed it when I came in, and I instantly knew this was the one. The stupid fleabag it was with attacked me, as if putting two bites marks in my hand wasn't enough for it to be happy. It got what it deserved though, as a pirate I refuse to lose to some stupid cat." He bit out the last word, as if cat was poison in his mouth that tasted foul.

"You're insane." Crow stated, his usual bluntness still there even under the pressure. Seto stood frozen, as if not even paying attention, his eyes were focused on the captive cradled in Vulture's arm. What had he meant, that they gave off the same vibe?

His train of thought was cut short by a hoarse laughter from the former first mate. "No Captain, my eyes have just been opened. Things are much clearer, you see, something is telling me all I need to know. It tells me that the boy brings nothing but trouble, and I have seen that for myself." The man's crooked teeth shown in his grin "How about it Crow, a fair trade I'd say. One odd ball for another, the cat for the boy."

* * *

In a room, somewhere far, far away from Garnet, a woman sat alone in the dim light that was cast in from a garden that appeared to be made entirely of crystal upon first glance that sat beneath a balcony, and stretched out as far to the horizon that could be seen. Her dark, steel gray hair reached the floor and spread itself on the floor behind her as she faced away from the garden, her dull, golden eyes staring at yet another crystal that her hand was pressed upon.

Her face remained emotionless as she seemed to watch something within the crystal. She saw a war torn country and the aftermath of it's people recovering, she saw a small town that seemed to have been forgotten by time. She saw ships out at sea being splintered by enemy fire, and she saw a glistening city.

Finally, she saw a small town covered in flames. She saw a group of people, faces she didn't know. A boy with the oddest color of maroon hair and a child like face, only altered by the gash bleeding on his cheek. His purple eyes were frightened. Next to him was a taller boy with black hair grasping a sword. His bright, yellow eyes were angry.

The woman smiled as the images fell away. "I must tell the Lady."

End Chapter

Wooh~! Another one down. Sorry, it would have been, SHOULD have been longer, but its 2 AM and I don't wanna write a fight scene -.-

I hope I explained everything well in this chapter, things that makes sense to me don't always make sense to others, I'll answer questions that wont spoil the story if need be.

For those who didn't understand by description of white vision Vulture, he's a monster from the game. It's the thing that shoots fire and holds a protest sign with the insane laugh, I thought it fit.

Anyways~ Reviews are welcome and much loved. I'll try and have the next chapter up as soon as possible.

_On a completely different note, this is turning out a lot different then how it was supposed to originally, with the summary in the first chapter. I apologize for that, but its too late now to do anything about it ^^;_


	6. Staccato

Vulture was laughing at them. Crow gritted his teeth. This was Seto's fault, this was all entirely SETO'S fault. His crew would laugh if they knew he wasn't attacking for the sake of some tiny, insignificant ball of fur. And it was all because of Seto's influence on him. How can someone have that kind of effect in a single day, anyways? Honestly, he was a pirate for Davey Jones' sake! Why should he care about the life of some cat when the cat that wasn't his? It didn't help that he'd named it, for one. And it reminded him of Seto…Gah! This was Seto's fault!

Meanwhile, the object of Crow's immediate general annoyance was behind him, experiencing a mixture of confusion and terror. Seto and Hoshi were the same? He'd never seen the cat before today, and while he thought the little gray kitten was adorable, he didn't think they had anything in common.

What was both terrifying and confusing, however, was Vulture's current appearance. He had not been some…some strange, finger spider creature when he'd been in Ren's shop trying to shop lift! When he'd first seen the man, he'd simply been attempting to be a thief, try and out wit Ren, normal pirate stuff, he had to assume. What had happened in the span of a day and a half to make him look like that?

"You know what's surprising me, Crow?" Both teens were brought out of their thoughts and back to the real-time current situation. "That you're still going over this. That funky kid's doing stuff to you too…the old Crow I know wouldn't even be in this situation, and he definitely would have let the cat die by now." The pirate captain rolled his eyes.

"Shut up, you ever think you just don't know me as well as you think you do?" He snapped, taking a couple steps forward. Vulture held his sword closer to the small feline in his arms, and grinned when Crow stopped moving at the sight. "I never knew you to play dirty, Vulture." He commented, his voice not betraying what he actually felt right now. Crow would never admit that he was panicking. Not ever. His sudden calmness caused every human in the room to look at him with mixed expressions ranging from confusion (Seto), to being slightly pissed (Ren, who's cat was at stake), to curious (Vulture).

"How am I not playing fair? I'm the one with one hand not in use here, if you hadn't noticed it's occupied by a cat." This was a good point, his advantage in all of this would be lost if he put down his feline hostage, since to his apparent surprise it was the only thing keeping him from being attacked. Crow glared at his former first mate and looked around, but it seemed like none of that cats that weren't injured on some scale were willing to join his cause and save another of their kind. And Ren seemed to be trying to, from what he could tell, and at points she'd send him heated glare, as if this was his fault. It only made him slightly regret pulling into the Garnet port, but then he remembered he did not care what Ren thought about him.

He still had a dilemma, and then his eye suddenly flashed white and suddenly the room was full of flames and a monster. He blinked and turned his head to look at Seto behind him whose face was slightly scrunched up in pain and his left eye was closed. He had dropped his glass staff on the ground, making himself defenseless.

"I'd say you're even now." The boy said quietly, though in the near silence of the room it was easily heard by everyone present. Crow looked at him surprised, and Vulture with a rather thoughtful look, that slowly turned passive, before a smile came to his face. The smile was not one of joy though, at least not the normal variety of it.

"I'd say that we are." Vulture agreed with a nod, and in his arm both boy's saw the small ball of gray known as Hoshi stir and slowly wake up, with a large yawn that at any other moment would have made anyone happy just to see it.

This, however, was not that time.

Hoshi looked around at the situation with the most confused look a kitten could muster, before looking at who exactly was holding him. The small ball of fluff hissed and for a brief second his eyes glowed, before he bit Vulture's hand. And then his hand was gone. Not hidden, not out of sigh. Gone. Hoshi dropped to the floor and ran while Vulture let out an angry, pained scream. Crow, had he not been holding Seto's hand, would have had absolutely no idea what had happened. Even holding his hand and seeing what exactly had just happened, he still didn't know.

Through the white vision, he'd seen a quite different scene then a small kitten biting someone. The gray flame that represented Hoshi had grown exponentially, and was far bigger then even Vulture. The flames were no longer gray, they were a swirling, deep yellow color that instantly reminded him of a harvest moon when it first started to rise into the night sky. The swirling harvest moon haze covered a large part of the Monster Vulture's arm-appendage, and then it was gone. The haze _and_ the arm. This all happened in a matter of seconds, in which afterwards Crow turned to look at Seto. The younger look just as stupefied as he did. So in closing, neither had any clue what had just happened.

Vulture let out a pained sound much like the sound of a wounded animal, holding the bleeding stub that was a few moments ago his left hand close to his person. He was stock still for a moment, before he let out a crazed wail. The former first mate charged at the boys.

The pirate captain pushed Seto out of the way and met Vulture half-way, their swords clashing in a loud clang of steel. Seto landed roughly, nearly crashing into a table, and nearly landing on a cat. Crow and Vulture were locked in a heated battle, neither would see him. Carefully and quietly, he kept low to the ground and crawled from where he was to where Hazel lay, Hoshi poking at her with his nose in what could only be described as affection and concern. In his left eye he saw she had no fire, and felt his heart break. He picked up both felines in his arms and made his way over to where Ren still laid tied up on the ground.

"What the Hell is going on?" She whispered harshly.

"Honestly, I'm not too sure myself." Seto answered setting the two felines down. Hoshi mewed sadly and bumped his head against Hazel's to no avail, the Somali did not wake up. Ren's anger immediately dissipated and she sat up, and scooted closer to the pair. Seto to the time and went behind her and untied her hands. She moved to pick up Hazel, holding the lifeless cat in her arms, hanging her head so that her face was not visible behind her silver bangs. Seto knew that she was angry, angrier then he himself had ever seen her before. She stood up stiffly and slightly shaky, and walked over to where her pistol laid on the table. Seto sat there, and looked at Hazel, looked at Ren, and looked at Crow. What could he do?

Crow dodged a well placed jab at his neck, feeling the blade of Vulture's sword graze his flesh lightly, but from what he could tell when he drew back for a counter-attack, no blood had been drawn. Missing a hand and bleeding heavily, Vulture was at a high disadvantage in this fight. But he still fought hard and with as much skill as usual, however he was quickly becoming disoriented from anger and blood loss. Crow thrust his sword forward, his sword slicing through the visible skin on the arm Vulture held his sword in.

The former first mate growled loudly and made a mad slash with his sword, coming uncomfortably close to Crow's face with his blade and making a gash above his right eye, knocking his hat off in the process. Crow lost his balance for a moment, and Vulture stabbed forwards for the kill shot at Crow's stomach. Crow cursed loudly, regaining his balance. But he was not quick enough to defend.

There was a very loud, staccato like bang from the side of the sword battle. Vulture was standing frozen in his spot, his sword poised to strike down his former captain, and on the side of his head blood slowly began to trickle. Off to the side of the battle stood Ren, with angry tears streaming freely down her face, her pistol aimed right at the bleeding man. Crow blinked at her as Vulture crumpled to the ground. He had to admit it, Ren was a good shot.

Crow let his sword fall to his side and slid down to his knees, the adrenaline high of battle leaving his system and making him feel exhausted in it's wake. Vulture was collapsed on the ground in front of him, a look of disbelief on his face as his eyes stared above at his former captain. He tried to say something, but it came out something gurgled, like he was drowning. When Seto finally walked over the light had left Vulture's eyes, and when Ren walked over they all knew nothing could have been done to create an outcome other than this.

* * *

The night after that was spent finding Crow's crew and telling them Vulture had been killed, and if anyone wanted to end up like him they could keep causing trouble, if not they needed to go back to the ship. Those who tried to continue to defy their Captain were faced with his new first mate Ren and her fully-loaded pistol, that, quote 'Would be shot without any hesitation even without Crow's order.' Suffice to say, the town was slowly cleared of pirates because none of them wanted to die by the hands of an obviously pissed off, unstable teen girl.

After that there was a funeral for Hazel and with the help of some crew members Crow had hooked in they tossed Vulture's body into the ocean. The crewmates were sent to the ship for the night, leaving the trio to go back to the shop and tend to the living cats' injuries. Crow and Seto were sent to bed in the middle of it, and complied with Ren's request. They knew what would happen if they didn't.

They sat in the darkness of the room that was not Seto's, both laying on the make-shift bed by the unlit fireplace. Hoshi had come in to join them after a thorough inspection by Ren and was sitting by their heads on the edge of the blankets.

"Hey Seto…" The silence of the room was broken by Crow's voice "All those fires…what did it all mean?" For a period, Seto did not answer him, and the pirate captain couldn't blame him. He was probably still in minor shock from seeing his former first mate, Crow was still a little shaken by it.

"I…don't really know, actually." The maroonette answered "After a few years, I figured out they mean emotions, but that's all I know about them." In the dark, Crow gave Seto a curious look.

"So those fires are supposed to be emotions…? So why are you all gray?" It was a question that had been bugging him, he wouldn't lie. If the flames were emotions, then did Seto's gray flame mean he felt nothing? Seto's coat moved against the blanket in a shrug.

"I don't know that either." He answered "I always had the gray flame, I didn't think anything of it until I left to start traveling and noticed all the varieties, my flame has always ever been gray. That's the only certainty about all of this."

"So this weird white world vision isn't a family trait or something?" Crow asked sitting up, looking down at the body next to him. Seto had turned on his side facing away, weird was probably a bad word to use.

"I don't know my family, at least not my real family." He said quietly, though in the silence of the room it was easily heard "The man who raised me told me I wasn't related to him."

* * *

"_Hey Grandpa…" A seven year old Seto pulled at an elderly man's coat as he worked outside their secluded home. It wasn't secluded by location, simply that there was no one around for miles even though they were in a completely open field, the ocean just a bit off in the distance. The elderly man who Seto called Grandpa was working on a fence that Seto was hoping some animals would be put behind. Grandpa was always telling Seto that they could not have animals unless they had a fence large enough to put them in. _(In Seto's entire life there the fence was not completed). _The old man glanced down at him with the same, indifferent look Seto had gotten used to after the two years they had been living together. _

"_What do you need, Seto?" _

"_Tell me how you found me again." The child said brightly, a smile that could outshine the sun was blazing on his face. He always liked to hear the story, he had no memories before he woke up in this old man's, his Grandpa's house two years ago, it made him happy, the story was like a link to his old life he could never quite connect to the rest._

_The old man sighed, and Seto frowned, his left eye seeing his Grandfather's normal brown flame flicker a light shade of blue. He didn't know what it meant, but he never liked when the brown was different, it was never good. His Grandfather had told him the flames he saw were probably very important and to study them when he saw them, so that's what he did. His Grandfather beckoned him over to sit on a bench that had been set up by the fence. Seto skip-hopped over happily and climbed up onto the bench that was a good deal taller then himself and waited for his Grandpa to lower himself onto the bench. When he had, he took in a large breath._

"_It was two years ago, a night eclipsed of its moon and only lit by the slight light of the stars." The man began, Seto grinned broadly "I had been in the study, at the time, watching the sky through my telescope. An eclipse is a rare thing, you see, when the moon disappears from the night sky, leaving it eerily dark. No one knows the cause of it, but when it happens you get a very good view of the stars." Seto knew this part already, though he had never seen an eclipse in his life before, or if he had he couldn't picture it. It sounded very scary. A night without the moon to light it, how could anyone see? _

_The old man continued "It was when I was watching the stars that I saw something slowly crossing over my house. I found myself immensely lucky, thinking I was the only one who would ever see such a sight. It was very bright, whatever was crossing over my home, and was blazing colors that surpassed the rainbow. And then it suddenly stopped." The old man paused to take a breath, leaving Seto bouncing in his seat. _

_"Then what? Then what?" The old man gave him a look._

"_You know what, haven't I told you this story more then a dozen times?" Seto gave an apologetic smile, and became quiet. Waiting for the man to begin. The elderly man sighed tiredly "The blazing object stopped over my home, as if knowing that I was watching. And then it suddenly vanished, without moving, leaving the sky unnaturally dark without it's presence. I hurried outside to try and track where it had went, and as the moon started to reveal itself from it's dark shelter I saw a small shape in the darkness in front of my house. And there you were, small and asleep in front of my house." Seto giggled as the old man let out a dramatic sigh "I felt so much less fortunate afterwards when I started raising you." Seto pouted and poked the man in the arm._

* * *

Crow gave Seto a seriously skeptical look "That old man of your's sounds a bit off his rocker." In the dark he saw Seto sit up looking towards him, and he didn't need any sort of light to guess that Seto was failing to glare at him. As usual.

"Shut up, don't talk about him like that." He said defensively. Crow reached in the dark and patted him on the head before laying down again.

"Yeah, yeah fine. I'll keep my comments to myself." He answered, chuckling lightly to himself "So, what you're basically saying is that you're an orphan, right? Did you really need to tell me such a long story when you could have simply said 'I don't know my parents'?" After a moment of silence he felt something with claws on his head as Seto laid back down, he reached up and felt something small and furry. "Really? You shouldn't be bringing poor Hoshi into this, the cat has dealt with enough today." He heard a quiet 'hmph' from the other side of him and gently detached Hoshi from his hat. This did not work, and with a resigned sighed he took of his hat with the cat still on it and set it where Hoshi had been before Seto intervened in the kitten's sleep. The room went into an awkward quiet after that, before Crow broke it, again.

"So…do you see monster things like Vulture often? I mean, I have to give you props for not running at the sight of him when your first met, but does anyone else you know look like that?" With his eyes adjusted to the dark finally, Crow saw his friend cringe slightly and roll so that they were facing each other.

"He didn't look like that…" Crow gave him an odd look, trying to get him to go on "When I first met him, he didn't look like that. He was normal, with all the same kind of colors that you or Ren have, he looked human…I-I don't know what made him look like that…"

End Chapter

Eh, sorry for the random flash-back, I wanted to do a long chapter. Originally I was just gonna do a random bonus here at the end involving Ren's shop, but I forgot that what I was going to do has story basis later and had to re-write. Sorry ^^;

Anyways, hope you guys liked this one. I'm horrible at writing fight scenes, bad trait when you're writing a story involving pirates, but I shall try my best. Good thing Ren came in and ended it quick.

See you next chapter~


	7. The Sky will be your Map

The majority of the next morning was spent cleaning up from the raid. The crew of the Black Wing were quite happy to assist in this clean up, especially with the threat of the newly instated first mate Ren armed with Vulture's old pistol. Her's was not quite working correctly.

* * *

"What a second, wait a second, wait a second…" The trio were in Ren's salvaging what they could of the merchandise. Somewhat ironically, it was all of the stuff that Ren had either never been able to sell or had never wanted to that made it through the attack in tact. "You were aiming for his arm?"

"Of course I was aiming for his arm, who do you think I am? He killed my cat." She said shortly "He was going to die slowly for what he did." Crow blinked slowly at her, as if before that tiny conversation he was getting lulled into the false safety that Ren was completely sane and normal.

"Then why did you hit his arm?"

"The gun jammed." Ren replied simply, kneeling down on the floor to collect to check for anything else Seto hadn't located that could be saved. Crow stared at her for a moment. He didn't trust her with a gun. He definitely didn't trust her with a _jammed_ gun. The pirate reached into his pocket and pulled out his now dead former first mate's pistol and handed it to her.

"This is technically yours now, since you killed my former first mate. And since you're my new first mate, you'll need something you can actually aim with." The dark haired boy smirked when Ren shot him a dirty glare.

"I still cannot believe you got me to agree to that…who's going to take care of the shop and the cats after I leave since you're so dead set on only taking that tiny furball?" As much as she loved cats, the fact that Crow had singled out Hoshi made the poor creature a little less favorable. Crow shrugged as Seto walked in carrying some bells (seven, he counted), a little chicken doll, a flower hair pin that he remembered from the jewelry table, and Pirate Isle (which he was sure he'd seen Seto take out there with him in the first place). He turned back to look at Ren.

"You'll think of someone." He replied with a shrug as Seto set the items on a table. When the boy went out to keep going through debris, Crow followed and ignored the glare he felt burning the back of his head from a certain cat lady.

* * *

The pirates had left chaos throughout the town. Many people were injured, and one person died in the night from being bludgeoned over the head while he was trying to protect his wife. They had just gotten married earlier in the year…Crow promised that as long as they didn't end up dead, the widowed wife could do as much damage to the crew as she wanted. She hadn't been entirely content with that, but she agreed. Many more people had also been injured, but they were all recovering. Even the gash on Seto's cheek had been bandaged, but according to the town doctor he might have a very light scar there after it healed. Seto hadn't been thrilled.

As of this moment, they were holding a funeral for Hazel and the dead husband (Ren was irritated that her cat was being buried along with someone she didn't know. The wife was irritated her beloved husband was being buried along with a cat. They shot each other looks throughout the entire service). Crow was in charge of Vulture's body, along with the rest of the crew (minus Ren, who said she had to do something) and Seto, they gave some of the dead man's loot to a coffin maker in exchange for a poorly built coffin (the man held a grudge for a broken arm received during the raid). The crew carried him over a rather bumpy road to a low point by the beach (that still had a rather steep incline) and tossed the coffin into the water. No one said any prayers and no one said any good words. Seto felt terrible, but he knew that it wouldn't have ended up any other way…Crow was silent.

As town restoration went on throughout the day, it was mostly silent aside from Crow picking lightly on Seto, mostly because at least twice he had been referred to as 'young lady', and partly because it kept him distracted. They all saw Ren at random during the day, but it was only fleeting glances. One pirate made the comment that he had a feeling that maybe the girl was not very safe to have as a first mate. The heard a click behind them, and there stood said girl with a gun.

That was the longest anyone had seen her since Hazel's and the man's funeral before she walked off and vanished again. The pirates watched what they said the rest of the day, fearing that Ren would show up out of nowhere. Until now they'd never had a reason to even worry about any girl…their views were quickly changing.

It was decided that they would stay in town one more night to rest from helping fix it back up. They got back to the ship rather late, and everyone had a tired look about them and went slowly to their bunks, except Crow and Seto. Crow had his own room, and refused to sleep with his crew since he didn't trust the majority right now. He also did not want Seto in there alone, defenseless with people he did not trust right then. So Crow and Seto were sharing a room that night since Ren had locked up the shop for the last time that day.

As they walked into the corridor that led to the Captain and First mate's quarters, Hoshi jumped down from the spot he had taken on Seto's shoulders and scurried into the slightly ajar door that used to belong to Vulture. There was light coming from the crack in the door, and Crow had a feeling he knew where Ren had been all day. He opened the door and froze, and Seto peeked around him to see what had made him stop.

Apparently, the silver haired girl had been gone all day because she was redecorating her new room. Everywhere Crow could see little trinkets from the shop, on the floor, lining the walls, on tables. It was like she had shrunken the shop and brought it in there with her! She hadn't only brought the shop.

"I thought I said you couldn't bring any of your fleabags with on my ship." He said, crossing his arms as he noted that Batty was sitting on an old looking arm chair that Ren had to have somehow gotten onto the ship on her own. How she did it with only being barely glimpsed was a mystery. All of Vulture's things were gone, the pirate captain doubted he wanted to know what happened to them. Ren gave him a look.

"I'm not leaving behind Batty. If Batty stays in town, I stay in town." Crow glared at her. Right now, Ren was the best candidate for a new first mate that he could find. He would have asked Seto…but something in his gut told him that was a terrible idea. And right then he didn't want to choose someone in his crew. He grumbled.

"Fine, just keep that thing out of my room and make sure it stays out of trouble." He said flatly. Ren gave a slightly triumphant smile and Batty looked smug. Crow turned and left the room, with Seto following close behind.

"Please tell me that thing looks like some horribly ugly monster from your point of view." He grumbled as they walked down the hallway, and Seto shook his head.

"No, it's just a normal looking fire." He replied, and Crow sighed. He lost his mini hope that the creature was something he could get away with throwing over board. It wasn't, he sighed. Seto laughed quietly under his breath.

Crow's room, to Seto's surprise, was not covered in all shiny things. It had a decent amount of shiny objects of course; jewels splayed out here and there, dozens of hanging mirrors and a table full of polished rings, but it was also decorated with other things. Seto thought it resembled early night with the color of paint and some of the random metal objects hanging on the walls, and above there was a singular candle lit globe that resembled the moon.

The curtains were purple and kept light from coming into the room so it was only lit with the dim light of the main candle hanging above them and other candles Crow was lighting, and off to the side he noted a large black wooden bookcase. There was a rather large, dark blue bed with drapes sitting in the corner of the room and it had a large, out of place golden moon engraved on the wooden part of the bed. The only other out of place thing in the room was a wooden table covered in papers, and on top of all those papers was something even more odd. It looked like a toy, and it also looked rather old.

From what Seto could tell from a distance, it was made of metal, but only because it was rusting slightly. The slightly pointed roof was gold and purpled stripes connected to a point in the middle where he saw a little star point coming up, and with the trim around the sides that went higher then the edge it looked slightly like a crown. Multiple little poles were coming down to connect to the bottom, and the poles were going through tiny little white horses that had many different colored head dresses and saddles, no horse had the same costume. It was a mini carousel.

Crow flicked him in the forehead, and Seto blinked. The room was decently lit now with a dozen or more candle lamps of varying looks. "You done spacing out, cause I'd like an answer to my question." The pirate captain stated, setting his hands lightly on his hips.

"Can you repeat the question?" Crow rolled his eyes.

"I asked if you wanted to head into town to grab some food."

"Oh, yeah sure."

* * *

The town, even though it was steadily getting darker, was still very active. People were wandering the streets with food and other supplies, lots of bandages. Some were empty handed, probably just going to visit friends who needed their help still. They all looked at Seto and Crow as the passed, some with smiles, others with glares. Some looked indifferent, but truly anything could be going on in their heads.

Seto grabbed Crow's hand reassuringly, as the flames weren't all actually very good. This only lightly surprised Crow, but since they'd discovered while cleaning up the town that he could only see what Seto saw if their skin was touching, Crow deduced that as long as Crow had his gloves on he could touch Seto all he wanted. Seto had hit him upside the head with a board and walked off. What the other boy was seeing now must have made him worry.

Somehow, they ended up back at the main circle square from the day before, which was much less populated then it had been earlier. The woman selling snacks was packing up, as if the fact that her stand was smashed did not bother her at all. Crow guessed that she had been there just like yesterday, trying to cheer people up with her tasty snacks. She spotted them as they walked into the area and smiled, waving them over, as if she knew exactly what they'd come for. They walked over, and she smiled kindly, but Crow noted her face was lined with small wrinkles and she had strong looking eyes. She didn't look that old…but Crow had to wonder.

"Hello again today boys, would you like a snack? I haven't completely packed up for the night." She said, her voice as kind as her smile. Crow wondered slightly how she could still be so cheerful after such an attack, even her own little stand was almost in ruins.

Seto smiled at her and let go of Crow's hand. "Do you have any more of those really good rolls left, the ones that have tuna in them?" He asked, and the lady smiled digging in the wicker basket she had slung on her arms before taking out a golden brown piece of bread that looked like it should have chocolate inside it. Seto took it with a smile, and the lady looked over at Crow. The boy thought for a moment and shrugged.

"Just gimme whatever he got." He said, indicating Seto with his head. The woman laughed slightly and pulled out another tuna bun, and Crow reached into his pocket to pay for it. The woman shook her head.

"No need to pay today boys, you've already done enough." Her smile was kind again, and Crow didn't even have to ask what she meant by it. She was saying thank you for helping clean up the town. Crow smiled at her thankfully and the woman's smile held fast as she closed her basket and walked into one of the alleyways that branched off somewhere into town.

Walking over to the fountain, they both sat down on top of it as the water gushed quietly behind them. The square was basically empty now, and Seto noted quietly that the sky was a few shades lighter then Crow's room, he wondered if the other had done that purposely. He took a bite of his tuna roll and looked at the sky that was just starting to show stars as the sun crossed to the other side of the earth.

A sudden pain behind his left eye jolted him back into reality as he noted an ungloved hand on his. Seto turned his head slightly and narrowed his eyes at Crow, who wasn't even looking at him but still had a catty grin on his face. No, Crow was looking up at the sky like Seto had just been, and was pleasantly surprised at what he saw.

Honestly, he didn't know what to expect. Half of him had been expecting the sky to be completely white, the other half didn't know if he should be worried about seeing monsters up there. But no, the sky right now…was beautiful. It was lit up with many colored fires all interlacing but still standing alone in their own colors, as if they were swirling but staying the same at the same time. There were dozens of colors as well, many of which he didn't even know the name of, but were pretty enough that if he had the ability he would have snatched them out of the sky. He looked over at Seto, he was now watching the sky again.

"Is this what you see every time you look at the sky?" He asked, slightly lacking the words to ask what he really wanted up. Seto shrugged.

"The night sky." He said "The daytime sky is pretty blank, and sun is very sinister looking." Crow almost questioned him on that. How could the sun look sinister, everyone associated it with good days. It had songs and everything; it was the color of happiness. His attention, however, was pulled back to the sky as he noted a large silver gray object slowly moving into view, the moon. It was very pretty, despite being such a colorless color and he found it odd for a moment that it was the same shade of fire as Seto was, even Hoshi had similar flames when he wasn't biting people's arms off. But as he noticed that his eye trained on something very close to the color of the moon, and he frowned in confusion.

He noticed (he didn't know why he hadn't before) that there were stars as well that were the same shade of flaming gray as the moon, and when he lifted his hand and began tracking them, he blinked.

"Seto…you see those stars? The gray ones?" He asked.

"Yeah, what about them?"

"Is it just me, or are they making a line that's gaining stars going east?" Crow had to be sure that his mind just wasn't playing tricks with this funky vision. He out of the corner of his normal eye he saw Seto nod.

"Yeah, I noticed that long time ago. Never knew what it meant, though." Crow frowned thoughtfully, looking back at the stars. Captain Raven's voice played in his head then. 'The map to the treasure is in the sky, Crow.' He had said. Crow blinked slowly and stood up. Seto gave him a curious look.

"Seto, what's the fastest way to get to the eastern part of the beach from here?" He wouldn't be able to confirm his thoughts in town, he had to have an open view of the ocean and the sky. Seto gave him an even more confused look, and Crow remembered that Seto got lost in this place just as easily as he did. He grumbled under his breath as Seto got up off the fountain, a slightly more than half eaten tuna bread in his hands. "Well, if we run around long enough we'll find it." Seto was about to point how well that had worked for them when they were trying to find the main circle square for the first time, but Crow took off running with his hand still in Seto's and the boy didn't get the chance.

The moon was at an angle to the city by the time they finally got the eastern beach, and both were out of breath as they listened to the quiet waves hitting the beach. The entire time Crow had not let go of Seto's hand, but somewhere along the trip they both lost their food. Crow looked at the sky full of fires, trying to re-trace the gray stars. He found the path quickly enough, as it continuously headed east with random colored stars surrounding it…like a walkway next to flowerbeds, if he wanted to be poetic about it.

"What…are you…looking for?" Seto asked, heaving in a breath. Crow was a fast runner! He honestly wondered what time it was, and now he was hungry again. Crow just turned and grinned at him. It wasn't a catty grin, or a sly grin, it was just a happy grin.

"Tomorrow we set sail to the east." He said, a happy tone present in his usually slightly bored sounding voice.

"Why east?"

"Because, my dear friend, treasure lies in the east."

END CHAPTER

So….yeah, its been a month. And I'm sorry…school doesn't help, nor does the fact that I am a procrastinator by heart. I'm going to try and get this on some normal schedule, considering I have the majority of the next chapters already planned out in my head I plan to write them and get as many up on here as possible.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed last time and to everyone who's still sticking around even though I take forever.

xXSleepingXx


	8. Meet Mr Log Diary, Land in Sight!

Authors Note: I wrote this chapter a bit…differently, then usual. I kinda wanted to give something like this a try, and it makes days at sea go by much faster. And besides, who doesn't love Ren's opinion?

_?/?/?_

**Entry 1, day 1**

So this is the little diary thing Seto found in some of the stuff from the shop that no one wanted to buy…figured why not put it to some use? I'm going to be out at sea for awhile anyways so I might as well keep a log or something. And before you ask, Mr. Log Diary combination, no, I have no idea what the date is. I'll ask someone later, so there.

So we officially set sail this morning while the captain was still asleep. I should have made him wake up, its Crow's own fault that he and Seto got back so late from wandering around town. It's not like Garnet is a labyrinth, though I guess neither of them figured out how the alleys worked. Still does not give Crow a reason to wake me up in the middle of the night to tell me I'm in charge of the ship until he wakes up.

Batty, at least, got to sleep through the night. She's so lucky she's a heavy sleeper, I'll have her keep watch around the ship while I'm busy. I need to know as much about these pirates as possible, and who better to get it out of them then a cute cat with big ears?

**Entry 2, day 1**

Ugh, finally. Crow finally got up sometime past noon-ish, but according to him Seto was still asleep. Couldn't say I was surprised judging by how late they got back, poor guy's going to have trouble sleeping normally for awhile if he keeps this sort of thing up. He will if Crow has anything to say about it I bet, Seto follows too easily. But I guess I'm not giving that stupid captain enough credit, he and Seto have been getting on really well. I'm pretty sure Crow did something, Seto stayed with me for two months and he hardly talked to anyone but the necessary people in town that I sent him to, and I barely saw him laugh. But him and Crow…it's a conundrum, one I plan to figure out~

Bleh, speak of the purple devil himself. Barging into my room and telling me to check inventory. This was not what I signed up for…or was forced to sign up for in a sort of 'But thou Must' moment.

**Entry 3, day 1**

So apparently some of the crew think just because I'm a girl they can do what they want to me. Oh Mr. Log Diary, I wish you had been there. Earlier today there was this one guy who looks a few years older then Crow (maybe a few years older then me, even) and while I was checking inventory he swaggered up behind me. He asked "What's a pretty little thing like you doing somewhere so dank?" Honestly, did he think he was going to pick me up with such a lame pick up line? I told him I was working and that he should be doing the same, and he had the nerve to put his arm around my waist! And you know what I did, Mr. Log Diary? I pulled out Vulture's little gun and I aimed it at his him and told him to get back to work, kindly.

It was worth seeing that guy run to be doing Crow's inventory, so far that was today's high light.

Walked past Crow giving Seto a tour of the ship a little bit after that. How come I didn't get a tour of the ship? I mean sure…I had most of the day yesterday to walk around it myself while they were all gone but it would have still been common courtesy though! Eh, at least Seto looked happy.

**Entry 4, day 2**

_?/?/?_

I got to sleep in today Mr. Log Diary~ Or at least, I was sleeping in until Batty alerted me to a large group of male pirates lingering outside my door. Honestly! Crow can keep them away from Seto but not away from me? I'm starting to think that he's trying to get me killed.

**Entry 5, day 2**

I walked into the kitchens earlier and saw Seto helping out one of the cooks. What surprised me was that Crow wasn't hovering over him like a hawk, since we set sail I haven't seen those two apart. Batty told me that the other crew members started a rumor about the cutie who won over their captain's heart, but I don't see it myself. I think they're under the assumption Seto's a girl, I told Zen (he's a cute, oddly silver haired guy who works in the crow's nest that's friends with the guy who hit on me on inventory duty) that Seto was a boy and he looked kind of shocked. I've seen less people making eyes at him since I told Zen, though.

Anyways, Seto always did look pretty happy cooking. Or maybe he's just happy he's not making food for my poor cats…I'll have him make something for Batty.

I really hope my cats are OK, two days without seeing them…I explained to them the situation but they were still sad. If the market ladies don't take care of them I'm going to kill them. The ladies, not my poor cats. How mean do you think I am Mr. Log Diary?

**Entry 6, day 2**

I walked in on something interesting this evening. Or, more like I kind of walked _out onto_ it. You see, Mr. Log Diary, I saw from my window that it was very pretty out tonight. There weren't any clouds and the moon was that pretty crescent shape that's big enough to not look evil. But I couldn't see super well from my window so I walked out onto the main deck and you know what…or more precisely, who I saw standing near the bow of the ship? Seto and Crow, holding hands. I hate to say it, but they looked adorable~! The way they were pointing at the stars and how excited Crow seemed to be, I wish I could have had a picture. Since I don't, I'm writing it down in you in the shadows, by the moon light. I've been out here for a few minutes and they're still there. I hope they're not out here all night or else none of us will be awake

**Entry 7, day 3**

_?/?/?_

You know, it's been three days and I still don't know a lot of the crew. So today I walked around and got some of their names to write down it you Mr. Log Diary.

Let's see…there's the guy from inventory, I finally got his name. His name is Toyo, and I was right he is older then me (he's 16). He's got fiery red hair and he's annoyingly tall, decently built I guess. Kinda pale though, I bet he sunburns easily. He apologized for hitting on me though, so he can't be all bad. I'm still wary of him, but he keeps an eye out for when I draw a gun now, so we're even.

I didn't give you a good description of Zen, I don't think. He's 16 too, and he's actually kinda lithe looking. Not broad shouldered like Toyo is, but still doesn't look weak. He's got more of an ash blonde hair color, silver-ish. Not near as awesome of a silver as mine, but silver nonetheless-ish. Looks weird with his tan though. He's really nice and Toyo is his best friend, apparently they both joined the crew at the same time.

There's this bulky guy with short cropped black hair on the ship, I don't know what he does, but his name is Oki. And when I say bulky, I mean he's heavily muscled, like he could probably pull a couple of cattle with little strain. He's sort of quiet, but he's not a bad person. He likes animals and he plays with Batty a lot, at least when the other crew members aren't around. Then he's all big and tough acting. I guess he has a reason to be on a ship full of snarky pirates. I think he should've chosen a better profession.

On the speaking of cats, Crow is such a hypocrite! Batty and Hoshi made friends with this big, fluffy black cat who told me his name was Kin that's been on the ship for awhile. Apparently it's his job to steer the ship away from storms, but he has a terrible sense when it comes to that sort of thing so he gets yelled at by Crow a lot. But he gets it right sometimes. He's super fluffy, he's started staying in the room with me and Batty. I told Hoshi hhe could sleep in there too, but the kitten said no. I still don't know where he sleeps.

And there's this sinister looking bald guy with an eye patch! I don't know his name, he's creepy looking. I didn't wanna ask, so I started calling him Patchy. I don't know what he does either, lots of people on this ship have a lot of very undefined jobs. I see him on the lower decks a lot, I think he's stealing rum and drinking it instead of working. I'm trying to get Kin to help Batty investigate him.

And then there's also-

* * *

"What'cha writing?" Ren jumped and turned, seeing a pair of red and silver heads looking over both her shoulders. It was Toyo who asked the question, and when she turned to look at Zen he was giving her an odd look.

"My hair isn't as awesome as yours?" He asked with a smirk. Ren closed the log/diary swiftly and glared at them.

"Don't you know how to knock?" Why hadn't Batty warned her about- Oh, right. Batty was on patrol for her today.

"Yes, it is a very simple thing that we did multiple times to no avail." Toyo replied simply with a smile she could almost feel a small bit of mock in. She sighed.

"What do you guys want?"

"We're coming up to a port and Captain wants you up top." Ren nodded at the red head and waved them off. Toyo ruffled her hair and laughed before he and Zen walked out of her room. Grumbling, she went over to the window and parted some of the things sitting on it, poking her head out. They were indeed approaching land, or a very odd rock formation. There were seven spires jutting up at seemingly random on top of it, and when she looked closer she saw light glinting off something towards the tops. Those weren't random spires. They were bell towers.

END CHAPTER

This was a kind of filler chap, since three days would take forever to write as is normally. And it lets me have the chance to get some of my other OCs in there that are important/ may be important later, so I don't have to take time out of the story to write their descriptions. And like I said, who doesn't love Ren's opinion on our favorite unlikely duo and other things?

I'm thinking of doing this every once in awhile during the time they're at sea for a super long time (or just random filler chapters like this one). But if you guys don't like it I wont do it much. Next chapters on the way, working on it tomorrow.

Can anyone guess what this place with seven bell towers is for?

Anyways, till next time! Please review~

xXSleepingXx


	9. The Bell Tower Town Ribon

The ship docked at the rather dilapidated. Gloomy port of the island they found, and Crow could have sworn that it wasn't just the port covered in fog if he had to guess. Not a single crew member made a comment about raiding, it had only been three days since their last one, for one (albeit, they'd had to return all of the things they stole). And while Crow generally wasn't someone to be feared by them, Ren was terrifying by herself and the last raid had been trouble for the pirates once she got involved.

"Anyone know where the hell we are?" Crow asked, stepping down onto the main dock after his crew had set down the ramp. He saw no one in sight, and the port itself was empty, not a single ship or boat in sight, not even the sound of people who might be working deeper in the fog beyond his line of sight. He knew it hadn't looked so foggy when they'd seen this place from the ocean, there hadn't been any fog at all. Had it come out of nowhere? That couldn't be possible!

"This is Ribon." Ren had suddenly appeared out of the fog, silent like the cats she seemed so fond of, in Crow's opinion. Though it also might have been the fact that as usual she was wearing no shoes as she walked and that made her all the more silent.

"Ribon?"

"We should probably leave now." Ren said, ignoring the question as the rest of the crew walked down the ramp. Well, some of the crew, at least. Toyo and Zen had walked down with Seto, actually by one of the other pirate's orders. Unbeknownst to Seto, of course. It was Zen who spoke up, sounding as if he didn't believe what was coming out of the first mate's mouth.

"You can't be serious, everyone knows Ribon is just a myth." He said flatly, crossing his arms as Crow glared between them, completely lost in the conversation.

"You must have seen those seven towers coming in here, they were _bell towers_ you idiot. And this fog wasn't here before we pulled in, we cant be anywhere else." The silver haired girl snapped. Honestly, Crow was about to lose his patience with them both. Thankfully, Toyo and Seto spoke up in unison before he had the chance to.

"Where are we exactly?" Both teens looked at each other slightly surprised, but Zen cut in before anything could be said between either of them.

"Ribon is the name of a fantasy town used in old stories a lot of people at sea used to tell. It was originally represented by seven beautiful bell towers and had a tradition for giving seven orphaned girls chosen at random seven bells to wear around their necks, signifying they were chosen."

"A Chosen girl," Ren picked up, earning an annoyed glance from the pirate "Was to be treated especially carefully, under the protection of the ribbon tied around the bell, they were given homes and loving families. This had been the tradition for many, many years."

"But one year after the seven girls had been chosen, one by one they went missing," Zen interjected, sending a triumphant look towards Ren who rolled her eyes at his immaturity "Once a week one would vanish, and at some point someone noticed something."

"Whenever a girl went missing, one of the roofs on a Bell Tower was painted the color of that girl's ribbon." The story was back to Ren "No one could explain it, and in less then two months all seven of the girls had officially vanished and the bell towers had been painted accordingly by their ribbons. Red, blue, purple, yellow, orange, silver and pink."

"Everyone was upset about the presumed deaths of the much loved girls," Zen continued, and this time no looks were exchanged. Apparently they were teaming up for the telling of this story, since both were dead set on telling it "That was when the fog set in the town, heavy and thick almost like a haze, and all of a sudden the girls were back. Not all at the same time, one would show up, another would vanish, but they were all alive by the looks of it. No one was going to doubt the bells around their necks."

"But the fog never lifted, and the odd thing was that the girls never seemed to change as the years passed. They stayed the same age as they did the day they initially vanished; their personalities stayed basically the same as well." Ren said "And it continued that one girl would be around for a period of time, while the others simply seemed to vanish without a trace. No one had any idea where the other six might possibly be while one was in town, and that one would never answer the questions relating to the other Chosen girls." Zen did not interrupt this time, because he hadn't heard this part of the story.

"And when did this all supposedly happen?" Toyo asked, not believing the story in the slightest. Seto was listening intently…something about the bells seemed familiar, but what? It had to do with those colors…

"About a hundred years ago." Ren replied, when Zen jumped in, seizing the chance.

"But since then the place…possibly this place, has gotten a pretty bad reputation among sailors." Crow raised his eyebrow at them both, on Toyo's side on all of this. Honestly, he'd been on a pirate ship for most of his life, he'd never heard a stupid story like this one.

"What reputation would that be?" He asked, skepticisms evident in his voice.

"People still came to the island," Ren said, completely ignoring Crow "But as far as anyone could tell it was just a simple island from the distance until you reached port. That was when the heavy fog would set in that no one had seen before they pulled up; no one took it as a bad omen since it wasn't odd for fog to be at ports. So people would go into town, leaving people to watch the ship as they tried to find people for supplies and such. But days would pass, and no one would return to the ship. Others would go in after them, and they too wouldn't come out of the town after they entered."

"Sometimes, the ships would just leave, fearing the worst for the rest of the crew. No one could say a lot about the island, and the one single person who came back was raving mad. This was how this story was brought to life in the first place." Zen said, and Ren shot him a dirty look. "The point is, Ribon Island quickly became either a place for adventures to go to test their strength that weren't generally heard from ever again as the story from that one single mad man spread, and no one honestly knew whether or not the place was real to begin with." The listeners were quiet for a few seconds after the story ended, before Toyo (who had been gaping), finally asked-

"You don't want to go on the island because of some stupid ghost story?" He asked, And Ren's glare right then could have something on fire (too bad the fog probably dampened it)

"It's not just some story!" She snapped angrily.

"The seven colored bells!" All people on the port dock at that moment to turn and gave their best confused look to the person who had spontaneously spoken. This person was Seto, who looked incredibly happy with himself for some reason "Those seven colored bells you never want to sell Ren, aren't the ribbons tied to those the same as the ones in the story?" Now all turned to Ren, with interest evident on their faces. Zen gave her a skeptical look.

"And where exactly did you get those?" The silver haired male asked, crossing his arms in wait of an answer. Ren shot him a dirty look.

"The poor daughter of that so called raving mad man." She dead panned. The rest of group had no response "She came in a few years back with them, wanting to get them away from her father hoping that it might ease his madness a little. That's how I first heard the story, and after I asked around for a little bit. I spoke to the man once when he came by the shop with his daughter, and he told me all about Ribon. He said to never sell the bells, to never let them out of my sight."

Everyone was, again silent for a few moments after that. Unsurprisingly, it was Crow who broke the silence, and his trade mark smirk alerted the people around him that he had thought of something and they were all being dragged into it.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" He asked, putting his hands on his hips impatiently "A place like this is bound to be full of treasure, is it not? I mean a town that's been avoided or hunted down must have some pretty nice stuff, especially if it's the real deal." Ren lost the ability to speak for a second.

"Did you not hear _ANYTHING_ we just said! This is a **bad** idea!" she fumed, but the pirate captain just rolled his eyes.

"I heard everything quite clearly, and honestly now I'm just curious about whether your story holds any ground or not. Who knows, maybe we'll find out why this place seems to make people disappear into thin air." Ren said nothing, Zen took a few steps away from her fuming form, but Toyo…

"You know if you're scared, while we walk around you can just keep a hold of me." The red head teased, and the people near by just shook their heads. Ren kicked him in the shin and stormed back onto the ship, appearing only moments later with a purple-ish brown satchel and storming off ahead into the fog. The boys followed after (well, Toyo limped), and Crow made the comment to Seto "For being the most reluctant to go in, she sure seems in a hurry."

* * *

The group walked around the fog covered town for some time, and all noted the exact same thing. It was completely empty, unless it was like Garnet and was full of maze like alley ways. The city itself looked cold, almost, like the water from the fog had frozen everything and was slowly breaking everything down.

The cobble stones they were walking on were cracked and covered with moss, the buildings were a lot the same. Seto envisioned what some of these tall buildings must have used to look like, what kind of people would have lived here. The Ribon he came up with was a very beautiful place, with happy children and vendors under a bright sky surrounded by buildings that had people in the windows, talking to people below or hanging laundry. It made him think of Garnet.

The first possible sighting of a person had been seen by Ren, who had chased after the figure, only to lose said figure when Zen caught her arm.

"If you're so freaked out why'd you run off?" Zen snapped

"I saw a little girl run by! She was wearing a gray dress, and she had black hair, and-" A hand landed on top of her head, and she glared darkly at it's owner.

"I think all this fog is messing with your brain, Ren." Toyo said, as if trying to comfort her. It didn't work, and she smacked his arm away.

"My brain is perfectly fine, and that's First Mate to you!" She snapped, storming off again. Crow raised and eyebrow, but it was as if Seto read his mind.

"Ren seems a little…different, doesn't she?" The maroon haired boy asked as Toyo and Zen rushed to catch up. Crow nodded.

"Your eye isn't picking up anything, is it?" He figured if anything was living on this island, Seto would have seen something on fire by now, but the boy just shook his head.

"I haven't seen anything but…" Crow waited.

"But…?" He urged on. Seto didn't answer, and instead bit his lip. After a brief second Crow felt the other's hand on his face, and the usual initial shock that came with the touch of Seto. But he didn't see white.

"Your white vision isn't working?" Crow asked incredulously, his shocked look not falling from his face. Sure enough, his right eye was seeing what his left eye was seeing, just in a slight gray hue. Seto nodded. "Why didn't you say so earlier at the dock?"

"I still had it at the dock." Seto answered "But as we've been walking the white's been fading out, like to the gray it is now. I cant even see your guy's fires anymore…" Crow felt his heart twinge a little painfully at the sad sounding note in the other boy's voice, and set a hand on his shoulder.

"I bet its just this fog." He said reassuringly "I mean seriously, look what its done to Ren." It was a 'speak of the devil and he will come' sort of moment.

"Hey you two! Hurry up!" They couldn't see her through the fog, but they both knew Ren's voice well enough "I don't mind leaving behind Crow, but I cant let my personal cook get lost in this fog." Crow stuck his tongue out in the direction of the silver haired girl's voice and Seto laughed, his worry for the moment, at least, slightly eased.

"We better catch up to them, it'd be bad if we got lost." Seto said, and Crow grumbled in agreement, which only made Seto chuckle some more as he and Crow hurried in the direction of the annoyed voice of Ren. Neither boy noticed a slightly bedraggled girl standing in the alleyway across from them, barefoot on the cobble stone in a patch work gray dress, her black hair a crazed and tangled rat nest. A pair of black eyes that seemed to pierce the fog watched the group, and in particular, was eyeing Ren's bag.

**TBC**

End Chapter

Honestly, this was the side story of the main story I've been looking forward to writing the most ^^; I loved the seven colored bells from the game, and I knew I had to use them in here somewhere and then I got this idea. I'm very happy I can work on this part finally, I have a lot planned. A lot of things you guys probably aren't expecting~

Until next chapter!

xXSleepingXx


	10. Black Bell Ren and The NotSoEmpty Town

It was Seto who first noticed the haziness that was slowly invading his mind and clouding it over, and after mentioning it everyone in the group soon realized they were all feeling that same haziness, as if the fog surrounding them was leaking into their psyche. At first no one thought much of it other then slightly odd, but it persisted as they kept walking, leading to Zen suggesting the find a building to stay in for the night. They'd been walking for awhile, after all.

"We probably just feel hazy because we're tired." He explained when the still agitated Ren asked him about it, asking why on earth they would be that tired when they could still see. As of yet, no one knew what was fueling her temper and what was keeping that little burning fire of rage going inside of her. They passed it off as mood swings, though Toyo suggested that it may have just been a bad time of month for the silver haired girl.

They all silently agreed not to question her on it and hoped it would pass, though even their tempers were starting to run thin because of Ren. The only reason Crow hadn't left her behind yet was because Seto said that they shouldn't, honestly even though he was dealing with adjusting to the lack of his normal vision, he was still the calmest in the group by far.

The group ended up in what they assumed to be a hotel, though they would have probably passed it by completely if Ren hadn't nearly stepped on the glass from the broken windows in the front. The rest of the group was relieved she was uninjured, right now she was a pain enough _without_ being in pain. Seto found it odd, though, how well they could see. Ren had made a point about something, that if they were tired enough to sleep, it should have been dark. The boy had no idea what time it was, but he knew it had been a late noon when they got off the ship and began their journey into Ribon, and they had been walking around for what felt like hours.

But everything had the same amount of brightness that it had when they had first entered this thick fog, it hadn't changed for hours. Only upon entering the building had it dimmed in the slightest, and it was easier to see still yet because there was no fog inside, but they could see clearly. The room they entered had a lot of scattered broken tables and debris, and the walls had a slight green tinge to them, and the paintings hung upon them looked soaked in mildew.

Directly in front of them was what tipped them off to the building's original purpose, there was a reception desk and a wall full of cubbies that Seto had to guess was for room keys. However, while everyone walked towards mentioned desk, Seto walked in the near opposite direction. Because there was something else in this hotel that no one took a bother t notice, a small cylinder made of lots of jagged stones with sticks coming out the top. A fire place.

While the group searched behind the desk, Seto felt the sticks in the fire place, assuming they would be damp because of all the fog, but pleasantly surprised to find them very dry. He pulled out a match from his pocket and struck it, the match head lighting quickly. He tossed it into the sticks and waited a moment before striking another one to help the initial match out, and together the two matches were enough to get a small fire started at the bottom of the pile.

By the reception desk, Zen was back by the small cubby holes searching for keys they could use to unlock the rooms he assumed were upstairs, or past the large door that was off to the right. Most of the keys were gone completely, none even by his feet on the floor. There were a few in there though, but the rooms they went to weren't even close to each other. "I think we're all going to be sharing a room." He said, holding up the only four keys he'd found in the gaps between his fingers "It's dangerous if we're too far apart from each other." Ren glared at him for this, and by some unknown, probably rage fueled reason, he'd struck a nerve.

"I'm not sleeping in a room full of guys." She reached over the reception desk and grabbed the keys forcefully, looking over the numbers that went to the rooms above. After a moment she held out two keys in particular, and Zen looked at them before giving her a blank look. She almost sighed "If you were paying attention, you'd see that these two have the same starting number, so they're probably in the same hallway. That's not very far away so it's not dangerous, and that way I don't have to share a room full of testosterone."

Behind her searching a rotting book shelf, Crow rolled his eyes silently. He wished he hadn't let Seto convince him not to leave her behind in the fog. It was then they all noticed the distinct smell of something burning, and turned to see Seto sitting next to a small, blazing fire. As he walked over, Crow silently wondered how Seto had managed to light the fire in the first place. How were the sticks not damp when the books were wet to the touch? He chalked it up to luck, though highly improbable luck. At least now they had some form of warmth.

The rest of the tiny group soon made its way over the fire, and took seats around it. Crow took the spot next to Seto, and a little ways around there sat Ren, and after a bit of a gap Zen was sitting with Toyo about half a foot away, and then came Crow again next to Seto was it came full circle. The warmth radiating from the fire only proved to renew the point that they were all tired, which was doubled when Seto yawned with a murmured "…So tired.", and after that the yawning disease spread quickly.

They reluctantly all got up from the fire, deciding to let it burn itself out as they walked through the double doors where two more rooms adjoined to the sides and a stair case lead up in front of them. All of sudden, Toyo jerked backwards, turning to look where they had just walked in, and frowned. "What's up?" Zen asked. Toyo ran a hand through his hair, and gave his friend a puzzled look as Crow and Seto waited patiently at the base of the stairs (Ren was already climbing them).

"I could have sworn I heard something like little kids giggling." Toyo said, scratching his head in confusion.

Zen gave him a skeptical look "It's probably just your imagination." The silverette said as he and Toyo started walking up the stairs, Crow and Seto a little ahead of them. Toyo nodded in response, and no one noticed the sound of running foot steps behind them at the base of the stairs.

* * *

Ren had been correct in her reasoning about the starting key numbers, the rooms they went to were indeed in the same hallway though a decent few rooms away from each other. According to Ren her room was a safe distance away, so she could sleep by herself.

"You can't be serious Ren, we still don't know how safe this place is yet." Toyo said, his disapproval evident in his voice. The girl gave him a small glare and walked away, walking into her room and closing the door promptly behind her. "She better get over her issues before she gets us in trouble." The red haired teen grumbled, walking into the room that the rest of the group was already in.

There were three beds in the room, all had the yellow tinge of age, but considering that Crow and Seto were already dead asleep curled up on one of the beds they couldn't be that bad. Zen was leaning up against the wall on a bed of his own that was off to the side of Crow and Seto's, and he was watching the other. Toyo looked right back at him.

"Lover's tiff?" The silver haired teen asked, a smirk coming over his face. Toyo rolled his eyes, grabbing a nearby book off one of the shelves and throwing it at his friend, who aptly dodged it and it hit the wall with a thud. Zen laughed, and said "You know with three beds Ren probably would be able to stay in here, if she was far enough away from us."

"Doubt she'll agree to that."

"You never know until you ask." Toyo, again, gave his friend a slightly exasperated look. In return Zen just slid down onto the bed, setting his arms behind his head. "I'll leave room for you, if she doesn't come back with you at least you'll have a bed to yourself." Toyo rolled his eyes, eyeing the empty bed off to the corner of the room with a tired expression. Ren was probably asleep by now, was there any point in waking her up just to ask her if she wanted the third bed?

Probably not, but nonetheless he walked out of the room and started walking down the hall to where the silver haired girl was staying. And all of a sudden, he heard foot steps running up behind him. He turned around, and saw…nothing. He stood facing the way he'd come, when suddenly he heard giggling. And then something kicked the back of his leg, sending him to his knees as whatever it was retreated with, giggles following the progression of running foot steps. But when he turned around he didn't see anything. Standing back up, he looked warily all around him, until an eerie childish voice reached his ears.

_**"Heeere I Come~!"**_ The pirate swung around, sword drawn and struck out in the direction where it looked like there was nothing. Much to his surprise, he hit _something_. For a brief second, a form buzzed into view, a pair of legs. And only legs…there was no torso, just some weird tentacle flame thing coming out where the torso _should_ have been.

Toyo staggered backwards, and what he assumed was a ghost turned and started walking away, disappearing with a pop. He stood there warily for about a minute, listening to the creaking of the hotel and trying to see if he could hear giggles, foot steps even. But all he heard was the building creaking and his own breathing, and he put his sword away in it's sheathe with an unsteady hand.

"I knew I wasn't just tired…" He muttered, casting another wary glance around the hall, though he didn't hear or see anything. No footsteps or giggles that were annoyingly pitched, nothing to stab at. The hallway was empty. After a few moments he let himself relax, and started walking quickly towards Ren's room. He knocked on the door and waited a few moments, before he started knocking again. It was about a minute after that he was about to start knocking again when Ren's angry face soon replaced the door.

"What do you want, Toyo?" She asked sharply, a clear edge to her voice. He rolled his eyes, he was starting to get tired of her attitude as well.

"We've got a spare bed in our room, we figured that if you wanted to sleep in there we could push it up against a wall so you don't have to be so close to us."

"I thought I said I didn't want to share a room with a bunch of guys, or did that not get through your thick skull the first time I told it to Zen?"

"Figured you were probably feeling all alone all the way down here."

"Well obviously I'm perfectly fine, so why don't you get the hell back to your own room and let me sleep?" Toyo's eye twitched and he took a step closer into the room, catching Ren off guard and a small chinkling around her neck immediately caught his attention. He looked down, and saw something totally unexpected.

"Where'd you get the bell?" Ren reached up to grab it, but it was too late. Toyo had already seen it, a silver bell hanging loosely on a black ribbon on her neck.

"None of your business, I said go to bed." She said, turning to close the door in his face. This failed, considering that he stepped more into the room and grabbed her hand off the bell.

"You said it yourself, there were seven bells. Blue, purple, orange, red, yellow, pink and silver. Not black."

"Well maybe I brought it from home, ever think of that smart one?" Ren slapped his hand away, but Toyo didn't move and waited for her to actually be honest, Ren was waiting for him to leave, and neither appeared to be anywhere close to budging. It felt like forever passed in the few moments they stood facing each other, before Toyo clicked his tongue and walked off.

Fine, if Ren didn't tell him, Crow would get the answer out of her in the morning. He walked into the room where Crow, Seto and Zen slept and trudged over to the empty bed, a pissed off aura surrounding him much like it had been surrounding Ren most of the day. Zen sat up in bed and looked as his friend quietly, he could only partially see him because they'd closed the blinds and made the room darker, but he could see his outline. The silver haired boy nearly asked what exactly happened, but he bit his tongue and laid back down.

Down the hall, Ren had already shut the door and was sitting back on her bed, holding the smooth, cold bell in her hands. She didn't exactly know where it had come from, to be honest. She'd woken up to giggling, like some little kid was in the room and when she had opened her eyes no one was there, but she saw the bell glinting out of the corner of her eye on the nightstand by her bed. It was a perfect replica of the other seven bells (she would know), and oddly the thought of receiving a bell made her giddy and replaced the rage that had been inside her all day.

She had no idea why she had been mad, but the bell was soothing, with the small noise it would make and its cold, smooth surface. A small voice in the back of her head told her that she should wear the bell proudly, but part of her knew better. Wearing the bell would bring questions, especially from freaking Crow, and with that stupid captain backing him up Toyo wouldn't leave her alone about it.

"I'll keep it in my bag." She said quietly, reaching next to the headboard where her brown satchel sat and bringing it onto her lap. Opening it, she smiled a small smile, seeing the other seven bells that she had brought with her into town. She'd been planning on leaving them behind originally, but something told her she should bring them into town with her. She had no idea what, though.

She set her black ribboned bell on top of the others and closed her satchel again, setting it back by the head board before she laid down to go to sleep.

* * *

The group woke to bright, bright sunlight filtering through their windows and upon looking outside they saw a clear blue sky above them and no trace of fog at all. Actually, Seto had to admit, the town looked very pretty without the fog obscuring it. Everything looked much warmer now, and though now they could see the place truly was mostly ruins (judging by the vegetation growing over the majority of everything), it seemed a lot safer.

They all descended the stairs slowly that morning, or whatever time it was. Zen had been up first, leaving the room to search the lower floors for anything he could kill to make breakfast. Seto woke up a little bit after that, though he ended up taking a little longer getting out of bed since Crow in the night had wrapped his arms around the maroonette's waist. When he did get down stairs, he noted that oddly, the fire was still going and went to go sit by it, pulling a small piece of dried fish out of his pockets to nibble on, wondering if it was still good after days in his pocket.

Ren was down the stairs next, satchel on her shoulder as she took a place by the fire. Zen ended up joining them after that with no food, but Seto thankfully had lots of dried fish in his bottomless pockets, which Ren looked almost annoyed by, and would have been annoyed by if she wasn't hungry herself. Toyo walked down the stairs next, not making eye contact with anyone as he took a place by the fire next to his friend. Seto wondered silently where the unusually tense atmosphere came from all of a sudden, but didn't voice his questions.

It was another half hour later when Crow finally trudged tiredly down the stairs, not bothering to speak to anyone as he took a seat next to Seto and took the dried fish that was offered. It was a very quiet start to the morning.

It was some time later (no one knew exactly how long), that Crow stood up stretching. "It's probably about time we start exploring again." He said, waiting for everyone else to stand up. He poked Seto (who was dozing off by the fire again), and the boy jolted awake, looking around. Crow sighed, setting his hands on his hips impatiently. "Lazy bums." He muttered as Seto stood up next to him. It was a slow succession, but everyone began standing up until the whole group was standing again. "Now then," Crow said, tapping his foot "How about we get to exploring?"

Ribon was truly a much prettier town when it wasn't covered in fog, it was obviously abandoned, but it had that old treasure filled ruins feel to it. Or it did in Crow's opinion, at least. Currently, he and Seto were ahead of the other three by a few yards, he wondered why they were all so slow today. He'd ask later, it was still early, they all might still want to go back to sleep and that was why they were trailing behind.

So he didn't notice at first when Seto wandered off to some alleyway until he had passed said ally and noticed that no one was behind him now except for Toyo, who'd been watching the ground the entire time he'd been trudging behind.

Retracing his steps backwards, his ears caught Seto's calm, mother hen sounding voice coming from said previously mentioned alleyway and poked his head around the corner. He was honestly shocked by what he saw. Ren, Zen, and Seto were kneeling around a little girl, the first sign of life anyone had seen since they'd got into town. Her hair was sunny blonde and short, pulled up in to pig tails sticking off the side of her head. She wasn't wearing any shoes, and all she was really wearing was a large white shirt that hung below one of her shoulders, obviously too big for the girl. When the girl took notice of him, she turned her slightly reddened eyes towards him, she'd been crying.

Her eyes weren't actually red in color at all (they looked it, but he could tell it was just because she'd been crying), they were a golden honey color. She whimpered when she saw him (and Toyo, who was watching over his head), and she buried her face in Seto's coat. The boy set a reassuring hand on her head, murmuring that Crow and Toyo were friends. She sniffled slightly and nodded, turning her face to watch them. The turquoise wearing boy smiled slightly, and turned to face the other two.

"Crow, Toyo, this is Lotte." Looking at the young girl, Crow didn't notice the haziness that had been sitting patiently in the back of his mind since the day before grow stronger.

**END CHAPTER**

….Ok yeah, this is about a week later then expected, and two weeks later than originally expected. I'm sorry, life is evil and I get distracted far too easily -_- I hope this chapter makes up for it, and I would love to hear any theories or questions. If you're confused, I can't say I'm not happy. This was meant to be a little confusing, after all. Aside from calling it the Seven Bells arc, I also like calling it the Mystery Arc. On a side note-

Zen&Toya: We are now allowed to comment in the author's note!

Under contract

Zen: Whatever

Toyo: What the heck is with me this chapter? And why was I the one spontaneously attacked?

Cause I said so, and that is all I can say without giving something away ;P

Toyo: Well tell me anywa-

See you all next chapter~! *waves*


	11. Flicker, dont trust your Eyes

As the group was walking towards an unknown destination, not a single one of them questioned Lotte's story. Why would they question the innocent little girl who was leading them to the people (the island had people?) she lived with. Only Seto had found the story slightly strange, felt something was entirely off, his mind straining to find what exactly, until Crow said he was just imagining things.

That had put his mind at ease. As they walked further still it dawned on him he hadn't said anything to Crow about his thoughts, but that thought ended up drifting away as he heard Lotte say from up ahead that they were almost there.

According to Lotte, the entire story spreading around about Ribon was false.

"Silvie knows what happened better 'cause she's oldest," The six year old had said, her hand held fast to Ren's as they walked "When Silvie was younger then me they found something way back in the back of the island, and that's where all the fog came from. Then everyone got sick, and it lasted awhile. Sometimes there was no fog and people got better, and they started trying to fix it, but then it would come back and people got sick again. The weird fog did something to people's brains, and a doctor guy found out that a certain noise could keep the bad fog from making people sick."

"The bells?" Zen asked, and Lotte had nodded.

"Yup, but the big bells weren't enough. Some people got sick a lot easier then other people, and they had to carry bells around with them all the time. Silvie said she was one of the first to be chosen for one of those special bells, and she was lucky cause the bells were hard to get."

"How old is Silvie?" Lotte stopped walking and turned at the sudden question, her golden eyes drilling into Seto's brown ones, and for a moment he could have sworn he saw a flame flicker…or, something flicker, like everything used to. He remembered Ren and Zen fighting over how the story (that was allegedly false) had taken place a long time ago, and sailors had been telling it for awhile, the man Ren had gotten the bells from had been old. How old was Silvie, then?

"Dunno." The little girl replied, her voice still as light as it had been throughout the story, but her eyes were drilling. Not the eyes of a six year old, and Seto felt himself begin to trust this little girl less and less.

"If the bells kept people healthy, why is the almost empty aside from the people you live with?" Another question that had been bothering him, even with such sickness, if they were protected why would they leave?

"Dunno." Ren glared at him.

"Seto, quit asking her questions. She said this was all before her time, honestly it's like you're interrogating her!" Ren snapped, and almost instantly Lotte went from the golden drilling eyed form into a little girl who was scared, and hid behind Ren like the older girl was an impenetrable shield. Ren huffed, glaring at Seto and taking Lotte's hand and told her to keep walking, and the blonde nodded hesitantly and started walking again. Instantly the distrust was replaced by guilt, and Seto had no idea why.

By the time Lotte had lead the group to a small, surprisingly not decayed building, fog had started rolling in and with Lotte's story in their minds, the fog seemed smothering, like it was choking the city. As soon as they approached the building the door swung open, revealing a lavender haired girl in a white night shirt that went down to her knees. Seto wasn't sure, but the girl seemed about seventeen, maybe sixteen.

Her voice, when she spoke, sounded like one of the worried mothers he would hear nagging at children in Garnet. "Lotte, what did I tell you about leaving without telling Fleur or me? The fog is coming out, what on earth were you thinking going out when I told you not to? Get inside." She seemed to just then take noticed of Seto, Crow, Ren, Toyo, and Zen, and added "All of you get inside." She held the door open, stepping aside. Lotte let go of Ren's hand and walked inside, her head hanging low from being scolded.

The group filed in quickly and the girl closed the door fast behind them as soon as she was sure no one else was outside. The inside of the building wasn't exactly furnished, there was a couch inside that was covered in patches with a warped wooden table in front of it, a pair of decaying chairs on the other side of the table opposite the couch, the room itself seemed in pretty good condition. What he assumed was a kitchen Seto could see through a small connected doorway, and a hallway that he couldn't see far down where he assumed Lotte had gone, since he didn't see her anywhere. The lavender haired girl motioned for them to sit on the couch, and scanned them with deep purple eyes while they sat there, looking for threats if Seto had to guess.

"What are you all doing here? I know stories have spread about this place, surely you knew where you landed when you saw the bell towers?" She asked tersely, crossing her arms "The story going around may not be entirely correct, but it should have warned you to at least stay away from Ribon."

"And what exactly is the real story behind this place?" Crow asked, holding the girl's look "As you can probably guess a six year old's rendition isn't as informational as someone who was there. I'm going to assume that you're Silvie?" Silvie nodded.

"Well, that's what Lotte has taken to calling me yes. I'm Silvia, and while we're on the topic of names who are you exactly?"

"In order, I am Captain Crow. This is my dear friend Seto, my first mate Ren, and my two ship hands Toyo and Zen." Silvia nodded, examining everyone named equally, almost like a hawk Seto thought. But he knew that if she was the oldest, as Lotte had said, then he would guess that this was because Silvia thought of herself as the mother of the people she lived with…then a thought struck him, when had he ever been this thoughtful?

He never usually contemplated things unless he was in a situation it was needed (then his mind was something to be reckoned with), but he felt no danger, he felt completely safe. But he had a feeling, a nagging feeling his mind kept trying to push away, that it was the doubt that made him feel like he was in danger, a growing doubt that had been building since the conversation with Lotte.

Seto wasn't a doubting type of person, which just made that nagging feeling grow, he wondered if it was because he couldn't see the flames the girls were putting off, that had always been how he would tell if he could trust someone or not.

He was pulled out of his unusual inner musings by a voice, Silvia's voice. Crow had apparently asked her to elaborate on the story Lotte had told them on the way here, the story about why the fog was here.

"I only really know what my parents told me," she admitted, brushing a piece of lavender hair out of her eyes "But I do think that I know most of the story, at least better then the rest of the girls."

"It all started happening when I was four, when this town was still named Lapis and was better known for mining then the seven bell towers. Back then the island was full of a lot of very useful resources, ores for weapons primarily but also things like phosphate rocks that we ground and made into matches or sometimes we were lucky and we would find salt. But one day farther in on the island, they were mining and they came across an odd pocket in the Earth that they thought was a hill when the started digging into it.

But whatever the pocket contained broke out after the started digging into what they thought was a hill. That's…that's where the fog came from, and it spread over the city like wild fire, never slowing until the entire island was covered. At first no one was worried, everyone thought the fog would just dissipate over time after they filled in the hole the dug. But months passed, and the fog never lifted…it got thicker, if you can believe it. And then…" Silvia stopped speaking, biting her lip. "Then people started to get sick."

"They started to get sick?" Ren asked, leaning in curious. Everyone was curious, it was an interesting story Silvia was telling. None of them exactly understood the story, yet it still made sense in their minds. Though as Seto thought about it…

"The fog made them sick." Seto nearly jumped at the sound of a new voice, another female one unsurprisingly. He turned to look with the rest of the people in the room to the hallway Seto hadn't been able to see completely down, and there leaning on the corner was a girl who looked older them, but had to be younger then Silvia if the purple haired girl was the oldest, with short orange hair that made Seto think of the sun going down at dusk, or the sky at twilight. It was that sort of shade of orange, not bright and not dark, but in the middle. A pair of black framed glasses sat on her face, and like the other girls they'd seen so far she was wearing white, in this case a white blouse and a pair of dirty white trousers, and no shoes like Lotte and Silvia.

"Bique, why do you always interrupt me? Its bad manners…" Silvia said, frowning in the girl who in response rolled her eyes.

"_Well_ I'm sorry, continue, please _master_ story teller. Don't let me stop you." The orange haired girl, Bique, said a teasing look on her face. It was Silvia's turn to roll her eyes before turning back to the group of pirates in front of her.

"As I was saying, the longer the fog stayed around people started to get sick. But it wasn't a normal sort of sickness, like a fever or a cold, sometimes it would start out like that, but most of the time people weren't blessed with that warning. Sick people would always start to act differently, they would act mostly the same, but a par t of their personality would go out of control. Say the person had a temper, sometimes they would act normal but they would go into unusual fits of anger or just be mad for no apparent reason. Some people would become courageous to the point of stupidity; others would succumb to paranoia, some delusions. In the end they would end up dead, and no one knew why.

Everyone knew soon enough that the weird fog was causing it all, but no one knew what to do. Staying inside kept the fog at bay, but people would still get sick, and everyone was terrified. No one wanted to outside for fear of getting sick, but they still weren't safe. No one knew what to do."

"That's when Doctor Ribon stepped in." Bique said from her spot on the door frame. "He was a scientist working on the island at the time, and a complete foreigner at that who had seen the island when he passed by and saw the fog. My father worked under him while they tried to find a cure after Doctor Ribon's wife got sick, I had already lost my sister to whatever it was and my mom was sick, so my dad volunteered faster then anyone when Ribon asked for help on a cure." The orange haired girl crossed her arms, and for a moment looked away from the group.

"Soon a lot of people were working on trying to find a way to get the fog to go away," She quickly continued "But it was Ribon who discovered what the fog did to someone's mind if they breathed it in or stayed around it for too long, and he also figured out that some people were more likely to get sick. He knew it had something to do with people's brains, so something to do with brains had to be the cure." She then noticed the dirty look she was getting from Silvia, as if the older girl was annoyed that she had hijacked the story. Ren and Bique both laughed quietly, and Bique motioned for the lavender haired girl to continue on.

"Anyways…Ribon realized that because the fog affected the mind, there had to be something else to counteract it that had to do with the mind. Something breathable was out of the question because that was how the disease spread in the first place, and upon trying that the fog won over the cure. They tried things that people could eat, but that only alleviated the symptoms and people still died. The Doctor started running out of options, but then he remembered an old story about travelers he had heard when he was out at sea, that bells can get rid of misfortune-"

"Actually that's not-"Silvia gave Bisque a look, the glasses wearing girl shut her mouth with a small glare in Silvia's direction.

"It was a long shot, and everyone knew it," Silvia continued "Trying to use bells to counteract the fog, but it was a source of hope and something to work towards. They made dozens of dozens of bells, all of differing frequencies until they found a bell that worked, the bells that ended up being put into those seven towers. For the people who got the illness easier, small bells were made for them to carry around. These people also helped neutralize the fog further by keeping the bells around, and were thought very important."

"This worked for a long, long, long time." A new voice chipped in, sounding a bit livelier since Silvia's voice was slowly turning into a drone a she continued. The girl was standing by the entrance of the kitchen, and Seto had to assume that she had been in there the entire time since he hadn't noticed her leave. Her hair was cut boy like and a dull gray silver color (How many silver haired people were there, he wondered?), and she was wearing almost the near exact same thing as Bisque was, but unlike the other girl she had a more formal sort of air about her like Silvia did. Or at least, in Seto's opinion she did. Silvia gave this girl the same exact look she'd given Bisque.

"You too Chris? Should I just let you and Bique tell them the story that **I** told you?" She huffed, and Chris laughed quietly, waving for Silvia to continue.

"The small bells kept their same exact ring, but the large bells were rusted by something in the fog and the frequency changed. It ended up being that the smaller bells kept their wearers completely fine, but people who didn't wear bells started getting sicker faster because the sickness had been inside them all along, and was only kept at bay by the bells. Without the big bells going periodically the sickness sent the town into pandemonium fast, and everyone died except the people who wore smaller bells around their necks. People who escaped were still infected and spread horrible stories about murder which brought more people here, and more people died as they hunted around our home and were infected by the fog. It was very disturbing to see so many of them die…"

"May I…may I ask a question?" Seto asked, seeing that Silvia wasn't going to continue speaking. "There was a man Ren talked to, who according to her came to this island a long time ago and he was really old when she met him…wouldn't that-"

"Seto what on earth are you talking about? What old man?" Ren asked, looking at him with general confusion.

"The one you got the bells from." Seto said, frowning back at her. Ren's confusion grew more apparent, and even Crow was giving him an odd look.

"I didn't get them from an old man, I said I found them about a year ago. Seto, are you feeling alright?" She asked, her confusion morphing into worry and while it seemed no one else noticed, Silvia, Bique, and Chris were giving him the exact same look Lotte had been giving him earlier, their hair matching colored eyes holding the exact same drilling stare. As he half listened to Ren worry about him, he suppressed the urge to shudder under their piercing looks until they vanished.

"I agree with Ren, Seto, if you're not feeling well we can let you all borrow a room. Everyone else is in their rooms, I'll be sure to introduce you all to the rest of our family tomorrow, but I'm going to assume you came into town during the fog and that wears down the mind heavily, rest wouldn't hurt." Silvia said, Crow nodded before Seto could object, before he could tell everyone he felt perfectly fine.

Something in the back of his mind was trying to make him feel tired, and it literally felt as if it were pulling, but he ignored it as Crow took his hand and dragged him down the hallway he hadn't been able to see down, only to see now that that was because it dead ended and had doors all along the wall. Bique told them that they could use the room at the end, where Crow opened the door and proceeded to drag Seto in and toss him onto the bed.

"Go to sleep, that weird fog is messing with your head I bet, it's probably what's been messing with your eye too. Some sleep will make you feel better." Crow said, his cheerful voice the only thing keeping Seto from rejecting and nodded, lying down on the bed and Crow climbed in next to him.

The bed was small…but so was Seto, so Crow fit onto it nicely. The others in the room gave a small glare at the pair for taking the bed, but there were dozens of blankets scattered around and used those to make small beds around the room. Seto closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to go to sleep. An odd feeling of distrust was beginning to build, a feeling Seto didn't appreciate having in his heart. Crow slept peacefully next to him, he could hear Toyo's random night grumblings and Zen shifting around, Ren was silent when she slept and considering he heard nothing he took that as a sign she was asleep.

Seto laid there for what seemed like hours, the thing pulling at his minding telling him that he was tired, that he should sleep, but his internal body clock itself and his body were telling him it wasn't that late in the evening and he shouldn't be sleeping yet. And he heard movement outside the door in the house (or building…he was calling it a house), it was subtle, but it sounded like someone was moving around.

Silvia? He doubted it, she looked as if she was going to bed when they'd come in. Lotte had vanished and he assumed she too had gone to sleep, and he wasn't sure about the silver haired girl (Chris?) or Bique, or the other people who may be living here. Something (he guessed the thing that seemed to be in his mind after the fog) told him that he should just stay in bed and go to sleep, but a nagging feeling outweighed it.

And considering that was the feeling Seto seemed to get whenever something with an unpleasant fire was around…he trusted that nagging feeling, and carefully got out of bed. Oddly Crow didn't get up, the time he'd been sharing a room with the other had proven Crow to be a rather light sleeper (he'd nearly strangled Seto for shifting the first night…), and the nagging feeling grew.

He walked carefully over to the door, stepping over Toyo in the process, and cracked it open, looking at the hallway wall in front of him before poking his head out of the door. Everything seemed peaceful, and immediately he didn't see anyone, before a shadow caught his eye in the living room. He stepped fully out cautiously, and immediately he felt a weird pressure in his mind…it was the haziness he had noticed the day before, why hadn't he noticed it all today? Surely it had been there…

"You know, I knew you were going to be a problem the moment you stepped onto the island." A voice said clearly behind him, and not one he recognized. He jumped, and turned, facing a tall girl with piercing blue eyes and stark blue hair pulled into a side pony tail. "I always hated you tribal types, even when I took away your gift I couldn't completely get inside your head, you're annoying." She said, and suddenly in a flash of pain the left side of his vision went white and the haze left his mind. But before he could register anything his entire vision faded black, and with his right eye he saw the image of the blue haired girl flicker like fire, a smile on her face.

* * *

Crow went about the next day, feeling that something was missing. He couldn't quite place that something aside from that it was very important to him, and that whenever he looked at the silver skull ring on his finger he felt as though it had a connection to the thing that was missing. He asked his friends this as Fleur (the apparent blue haired resident of the house, older then Chris) served them lunch while the other girls were out in town doing….something or other, and the girl left with the bell around her neck making a small chinkling noise as she walked into the kitchen.

Toyo and Zen shared the feeling that something was missing, something important. Toyo associated it with a color mixed between red and brown, maroon was the color he settled on, but he still thought red. Zen said turquoise was what reminded him of the missing something, the something had a lot of turquoise on it, but he wasn't sure what it was. When Crow tried to remember the missing something, all he could think of was fire. Sometimes it was a steely silver color, other times it was rainbow colored, and whenever he thought of it he felt sorrow build that he couldn't explain because he couldn't remember it.

In the end, they couldn't think of what was missing, and then Toyo made everything more complicated when he asked which missing thing they were talking about.

"It feels like there should be two somethings, like they're both gone." And he was right, absolutely right now that Crow thought about it. Something else aside from the first something was also missing, he imagined an angry silver cat when he tried to think about what that something was and asked Zen and Toyo if that could possibly be it, but they both thought of the other missing thing as something completely different.

"Maybe they're in town somewhere, I'm sure the girls won't mind if we explore." Crow said standing up, and eyeing the ring on his finger, before he felt something in his mind feeling like it was pulling. He didn't like the feeling and was tempted to ignore his ring to get rid of it, but his ego didn't want the pulling to win. So he kept the ring in mind as well as the missing somethings as he and his two crewmates left the house and walked out into Ribon, and Crow suggested the first thing that went through his mind, which part of him thought was absolutely ridiculous, but it came out of his mouth anyways.

"Lets head for where they said that weird, fog creating pocket was supposed to be. Maybe we'll find something there."

* * *

Seto laid there, semi conscious on a rock floor, beaten and bruised. His stomach hurt and he was sure he had a broken rib, a trail of dried blood was on the corner of his mouth from an injury he had no memory of getting, he would have wiped it away had it not hurt to move. The room was square and old with wooden supports here and there. Tables were scattered around the room far away from him by the other wall, he wondered vaguely what the wooden building's purpose was, and what the chances of it falling on top of him and killing him were.

The room was almost empty, but if he craned his head (that hurt, so he'd only done so a few times), he could see the tables had things laying on top of them, small things, but a lot of them on each table, though what exactly he couldn't tell from the distance. However, for reasons he only half understood, he could see a fire again laying down on one of those tables. A familiar looking fire that slowly looked like it was dying out.

"R-Ren…" He gasped quietly, only to be cut off when a strong leg kicked him squarely in the stomach, making him cry out.

"Be quiet." The voice belonged to a female, who either Seto had not noticed or that had been there the entire time. A girl who looked under the age of thirteen with bright red hair and a pair of matching eyes, her hair was tied back in a pony tail, in a white dress with a contrasting bell on a red ribbon hanging around her neck.

But his left eye saw a completely different person, or…honestly, he was sure what his white vision saw was not at all human. What he saw was a sickly pink colored floating woman in a dress (her dress wasn't the sickly pink, she herself was entirely the color) , her face was hidden in her hands and behind a curtain of dark hair…as if she were crying.

His white vision had never extended to his ears so he didn't know, he couldn't tell if her shaking was from crying or from the daggers sticking out of her back, which he saw when the girl walked around to the other side of him, or the crying woman floated past with her mangled looking feet nearly dragging on the ground. The red haired girl in his right eye kicked him in the gut again while the crying woman in his other eye remained motionless. Seto inhaled sharply at the impact, curling in on himself as he feebly tried to stop the pan. He felt tears stinging his eyes/

"Now, now..." the girl cooed, her voice sounding almost soothing. Almost. "I know it hurts, but don't worry. You're going to die soon," The soothing voice gained an under tone of malice "You'll be dead, and then you wont have to worry about pain or anything else."

Seto forced his head to move despite the pain, and glared at the girl "Oh, don't worry, you'll friends be going there ahead of you. They still believe that silly little story I wove, and they're coming here now, looking for you. By the time they realize what's going on, it'll be look late."

The girl kneeled down and smiled an eerie smile, staring red eyes piercing as they stared into Seto' frightened purple irises. "By then, I'll have a new form to play around with. I think I'll kill your precious captain first, and then Toyo and then Zen." The eerie smile morphed into a malicious smirk "And you're going to watch it all, you annoying little boy. You'll watch as all of your friends die, and I'll take pleasure in watching you die at the hands of someone so dear to you. I want to see your face when your precious friend Ren kills you last."

End Chapter

Umm….yeah, don't kill me? Please? I didn't mean to take so long to update and the next chapter is nearly finished, so I won't leave you hanging long. It was late when I finally finished this, so if anyone sees major errors please tell me?

Did this turn out fine, at least? I hope its enough for the wait, I didn't mean to take so long. I lost my inspiration for writing for awhile and couldn't come up with a way to end the chapter…then I saw the latest Harry Potter movie and the ending came to mind just like that. Funny how that works.

Anyways, reviews are wanted as always. Your thoughts are always important to me, and I hope this chapter brought some things to light for you guys to think on :)


	12. In which

(Since the title wouldn't fit)

"In which Seto Dreams, and the Crew finds a factory"

Honestly, how had they not seen such a giant, dense forest from town? Some of the trees they'd already passed could easily have been taller from some of the buildings. Crow wondered how exactly that worked as he and his two crew members wandered aimlessly through the forest. At some point, Toyo and Zen had taken to leading, they looked completely lost though. Not that Crow had any idea where they were going either, it didn't help that all the trees, tall and taller, looked completely the same to him. The pirate sighed.

"We're lost." He said bluntly, causing the two ahead of him to stop walking and turn around. They knew he was right, none of them were suited for trying to figure out how to navigate a forest. They were pirates, after all, the ocean was more their forte. They were easily out of there element here, more so than ever it seemed. It was then that to the side of them they heard rustling, like someone walking, and there was then a bright pink that contrasted all of the greens and browns around them. It was a girl in a white, sleeveless sun dress with long, wavy pink hair. She blinked at them, looking surprised to see them. Part of Crow wanted to ask who she was, but the pirate captain in him told him that she was suspicious. Showing up right when they needed help? Apparently, his crew did not share his thoughts.

"What are you doing out here, Maria?" Toyo asked, giving the girl a curious look. Crow turned to look at him. How did Toyo know her? He gave a questioning look to Zen, who apparently wasn't paying attention. Wait…no, he knew the girl. This was one of Silvia's sisters; she'd woken them up this morning. Fingering the ring in his pocket, that thought all of a sudden seemed untrustworthy. All the same, as if she didn't notice him, Maria offered a shy smile towards the boys.

"I-I'm out here collecting flowers, or at least looking for them. The fog suffocates them, but you can usually find them after it clears." She answered, and Crow noticed that she had a wicker basket in her hands that had some small flowers sitting at the bottom. There weren't a lot of them though. Toyo nodded, taking her answer as a valid one.

"So you know the forest well then, from collecting flowers?" Zen asked, catching her off guard with the question. She nodded.

"Yeah, I-I guess. I don't get lost anymore, at least. Why?"

"We're looking for that old mine place Silvia told us about." Crow said, watching her carefully, looking for a reason to give his suspicions some grounds aside from a feeling. He did find it slightly odd, though, as he looked at her, how her dress was still completely white if she'd been picking flowers and almost the entirety of the ground they were standing on was dirt. Especially if the flowers were anything to go by, she'd have had to kneel to pick them, and even if she pulled her dress up, there would at least be dirt on the hem of her dress around the bottom, right? "You must be very careful picking flowers, there's not a speck of dirt on your dress." He observed, and for a second, the girl looked nervous.

"I-I try my best, if I get it dirty I have to wash it." She said with a bit of a nervous looking smile. "Why do guys want to go to the mines? They're not a very safe place to go adventuring…" She said, a worrying tone in her voice.

"We're looking for something." Crow said "Two somethings, in fact. Two important somethings." He wondered how incredibly ridiculous he sounded when he said that. He then decided he didn't really care what this suspicious/non suspicious girl thought of him. Maria raised an eyebrow at him.

"Do you not know what you're look for, if they're somethings?" She asked tentatively.

"Not exactly, one of them is a fiery red thing and the other is possibly a silver cat." Toyo explained, a bit if a nervous grin on his face. The girl blinked at the three of them, obviously confused and looking completely lost in their explanations. Crow couldn't blame her for that at least, they weren't sure what they were looking for, how could they expect her to? He wasn't surprised when Maria changed the topic back to the mine location, he was actually slightly grateful.

"I-I'm not sure about what you're looking for…but I know where the mine is." She said hesitantly, her grip on the wicker basket tightening slightly "It's very dangerous though, are you sure you should go there when you don't know what you're looking for?" There was a tone of worry in her voice, but Toyo just gave an over confident grin in response.

"We'll be fine." He said, pulling Zen and Crow close, the latter of which shoved him off just as quickly. This didn't deter the red head. "We're pirates, after all." Maria gave them a soft smile, nodding in defeat, knowing there wasn't a way she was going to convince them against going somewhere so…dangerous, just plain dangerous, according to her. But obviously, none of the males were worried. They could defend themselves fine, they were pirates after all.

"Alright, I'll lead the way then." Maria agreed.

* * *

Seto had been going in and out on consciousness for awhile now. The majority of his conscious moments he had been alone in the wooden building, he was sure the last time the red haired monster girl had been in there she had kicked him in the head again, but she had been gone awhile as well. Ren was still in there, her flame flickering smaller and smaller every chance he could turn to look at her. Ren's flame was steadily getting smaller, she was dying, and like he was sure he was. It made his heart ache, thinking she was dying…they had shared a lot of times in the time he'd spent paying back his debt to her cat, she was his friend after all.

Actually, the line between being conscious and unconscious was a blur to him. When he was unconscious, he was in a very shiny place. And there was someone there with him, always staring at him. It took him the first few trips to this odd, shiny place to realize that the person staring at him was his reflection in the glass he was seemingly surrounded by. The panes were connected by a substance that looked a lot like cloudy ice, and Seto wished he could reach out and touch whatever it was. When he looked around the glass he was within, he couldn't help but notice. It looked like he was in a glass cage…why did it seem so familiar?

He was taken out of this cage, this time at least, by a sharp jolt of pain that came from a sharp kick to his stomach, and he found himself back in the wooden building, back on the cold stone floor, with a familiar face leaning over him. Behind a pair of glasses, orange sunset eyes glared down at him, malice not hidden whatsoever. It was Bique, and as she glared down, the bell around her neck made no noise.

"Welcome back, sleeping beauty. You mind at least trying to stay awake?" She asked, her tone annoyed as she pushed a strand of orange hair out of her face.

* * *

How on earth Maria managed to navigate the forest so well just because she supposedly knew the places where flowers were was beyond Crow. They'd lost her in the thicket of trees twice already, only to see her hair in a random flash and find her again, waiting with a patient look on her face. Actually, counting right now…it was three times they'd lost sight of the pink haired girl in the wall of trees they'd been going through, and already Zen had tripped on a rather large root sticking out of the ground while trying to catch sight of the bright pink hair of their guide. Crow sighed, agitated as they kept moving forwards. "I think she's doing this on purpose." He said, sounding just as annoyed as he looked. Zen gave him an odd look.

"I don't think she's the type of person to do that, she's a nice girl." Crow raised an eyebrow at him.

"How can you be so sure? We've only been here for two days, you can't assume someone is good or bad by knowing them for so little time." At this, both Toyo and Zen stopped walking, looking at him with a completely lost look on their faces, Zen more so then Toyo.

"I think that's stretching it a bit Captain…" Toyo said, crossing his arms and watching his captain carefully. "I mean I get what you're saying, he shouldn't assume how she is because we haven't been long, but there's a difference between a week and two days."

"What are you two blathering about? We've been here a month." Zen said crossly. "Honestly, is your sense of time that terrible? And considering how hospitable those sisters have been to us too."

"I'm telling you, we've only been here for two days, you two are the ones who have no sense of time."

"Sorry Captain, I have to disagree. I'm telling you we've been here a week at the most, but certainly more than two days."

"Would you listen for once? I'm telling you we've been here for a month!"

"Umm…boys?"

"And as Captain I'm telling you to shut up, you're probably the farthest off Zen."

"Seriously, it can't have been a month."

"I'm telling you it's been a month!"

"Boys?"

"It's only been a week!"

"Two days!"

"BOYS!" The three pirates jumped, noticing their pink haired guide for the first time since they'd started arguing. She was giving them a rather strict look, which looked out of place from the patient look Crow had seen on her since they'd found her out in this bloody maze of a forest. "Please try and keep up, Silvia said the fog would probably be back by evening, please I don't want to be caught in it." She started walking again, stumbling over the same root Zen had tripped over, the bell around her neck, tied with a ribbon, rang quietly at being shook.

Realization shot through him like a sword, and suddenly it felt like something was being lifted from his mind, like…fog.

"You stole that from Ren, didn't you?" His voice was calm enough, to those who didn't know him well at least. Toyo and Zen however caught the undertone of anger that calm voice carried with it, but were more confused by the question then where the anger had come from. "I wonder, what exactly did you give us to screw our memories up so much, enough to forget who are friends were? I regret not listening better to what Seto had been saying, I knew something felt off when I saw all of you wearing those bells. Now tell me, who exactly are you and what do you want?" He wanted to ask, certainly not desperately (because Crow was NOT someone to become desperate), where Seto and Ren were.

Maria was silent, unmoving, for what seemed like a good few minutes, until out of the corner of his eye he saw Toyo's face morph from confusion as to what was going on, to anger as he stomped over to Maria, grabbing her shoulder and swinging her around to face them.

"Answer the question! What do you want? And what did you do with Ren and Seto?" He snapped, and suddenly, the confusion fell from Zen's face, too. The fog had been lifted.

Maria giggled slightly, all pretense of the shy, if slightly bossy girl from mere minutes before was completely gone, and that giggling soon turned to laughter. Toyo took a small step back, releasing his grip on the pink haired girl, and she shot them a grin. "Well, if you'd have just kept following me you'd have found them!" And without warning, she took off running into the woods, her wicker basket seemingly disappearing along with the tiny flowers that had been within it. Crow took off chasing her within seconds, Toyo soon following after just as quickly and Zen catching up after a moment or two.

The paths that Crow had thought he'd seen, where the dirt looked worn, was suddenly covered in grass. There was grass everywhere, and the trees were suddenly covered in all kinds of moss. The roots that they had already been dodging were a lot easier to see now, many of them were sprouting mushrooms. The ones that weren't were quite annoying, they blended in with the grass and were hard to see until you were nearly tripping over them.

Annoyingly enough, Maria was not having near the same amount of issues they were having traversing the forest, she seemed to be having quite an easy time doing so and Crow was having an even harder time keeping up with her now than they had been earlier. Crow may be agile, easily more agile then they crew members of his that were stumbling slightly behind him, but this was pushing it just a bit even for him, he'd nearly tripped twice. Crow cursed quietly under his breath, dodging another root and trying to re-find that annoyingly bright shade of pink they were now being pretty much forced to follow.

Worry coursed through him like a wave of water, fueling him more than his anger. Was Seto OK? It had been a day, maybe longer if he let himself accept that or once Toyo may be right, and on regular terms Crow wouldn't be worried. That being said, regular terms didn't include Seto going missing and Crow's memory being screwed with. And then there was Ren, and while it wasn't the same sort of worry (Ren was pretty competent), he knew if she had been able to she'd have dragged Crow, Toyo, and Zen to the mine to get Seto, whether they remembered her not.

Crow made a sharp turn, catching sight of pink in some of the underbrush, and he heard his two crew mates behind him stumble, trying to turn as well and nearly falling, if Crow had to guess. He didn't care enough to look back right then honestly, if he didn't pay attention he'd lose sight of Maria again. Though now he was sure she'd been losing them on purpose earlier, he hated playing this game of hide and seek with her, they were pretty much running blind unless one of them spotted her. Crow decided that when they caught up to her, he was going to punch her. Generally, he didn't hit girls but he was willing to make an exception for this one. And all of her sisters when they found them.

Crow stopped short at the entrance to what seemed like a clearing of some sort, making Toyo and Zen nearly run him over when they came to a short stop just behind him. Before them, in the clearing that was a building that the trees had taken to holding up it seemed, the building was made of wood and Crow doubted that if the trees hadn't started growing on it would've fallen by now.

The wood looked decayed, and from what Crow could tell there weren't any windows visible. There was a big, carved out bell on top of the building, and Crow was surprised it hadn't gone through the roof. Ahead of them, Maria entered the building, and Crow motioned to his crew to follow him as he started running towards the building, stopping at the door and poking his head in the door carefully. It led into a hallway, but Crow didn't see anyone as he stepped completely into the building, followed by Toyo and Zen.

"Where the hell did she go?" the captain muttered, eying the hallway carefully. He could see the outline of either incredibly bad rot, or doors lining the hallway while the hallway itself seemed to turn somewhere ahead of them. Was Maria in one of the rooms? Crow walked forward to the closest door to them, a sliding door without a lock by the looks o it, and slid the door to the side, revealing a room that looked just as decayed as the outside of the building. There were a few long, but broken tables in the room as well as a lot of chairs that were mostly missing legs here and there; one was missing its back entirely. Crow closed the door and walked quickly to the next one.

After opening most of the doors in the hallway, Crow was starting to get mildly annoyed. The rooms usually consisted of the same thing as the first, long tables and chairs, two of the ones he'd opened had stairs going downwards that he wasn't willing to risk his life trying to go down judging by the rot he saw on them, but he saw large slabs when he looked down and he wasn't sure, but the slabs looked likes molds for something. In another room with a set of untrustworthy stairs, he'd seen a large metal looking thing sticking up slightly, enough so that Crow hadn't needed to go into the room to see it. If he had to hazard a guess, since the two rooms with slab like mold objects were on either side of this room, they were probably connected on the lower floors. Zen gave the large metal thing an impressed look, Crow rolled his eyes and closed the door and started walking again towards the next door.

"What do you think this place is?" Toyo asked, after Crow opened yet another room with long tables and chairs, only to close it unnecessarily hard.

"If I had to guess, I'm pretty sure this was a factory of some sort." Crow answered, walking to another door and trying to open it. This one was more stubborn then the other ones, it seemed.

"If the large metal thing is what I think it is, then this might be the bell factory." Zen said as Crow tried to open the current door "You usually only see such large metal objects like that where they need to melt metals and stuff, the molds in the room next to it that we saw are probably large bell molds."

"Zen, as much as I'd love to hear your thoughts on bells, would you and Toyo quit talking for a minute and help me with this stupid door? I think its rotted shut." came Crow's voice from beside them, trying in vain to try and pull the door open like he'd been able to with all of the other ones they'd opened in the hallway. The crew mates sighed, and Zen shook his head, but they walked over and tried to help their captain open the door that was apparently giving him trouble. Even with the added strength the door wouldn't budge, much to Toyo and Zen's surprise.

"I could understand maybe the rot making it stick, but this is ridiculous." Toyo said, letting go of the door for a moment to glare at it, as if it was aware of the problems it was causing. "Can't we just leave it? We're supposed to be looking for Ren and Seto, or Maria, not screwing with doors." His tone was impatient, and laced with worry. Zen gave him a sympathetic look that Crow didn't get the meaning behind, but he sighed.

"Alright, you two keep going. I just wanna check behind this door, if I know for sure that I can't get the damn thing open, I'll catch up to you guys." He said, noting that the two of them seemed rather hesitant to leave him behind. He sighed "Well, you going or not?"

"Are you sure you're not coming with? It's probably dangerous to be alone here, especially with Maria, and probably her sisters running around…" Crow and Toyo both sent Zen a look "Geez, it's probably not safe to be wandering around alone with those sisters running around." The silver haired boy corrected himself.

"Look, we just don't want you getting hurt Crow." Toyo said "Whatever those girls are, they messed with our heads, who knows what else they can do?"

"Seto and Ren probably know what else they can do." Crow said, and Zen winced slightly "We need to find them, and if those sisters get in my way I'll deal with them. I'm your Captain, and I order you to get going, got it?" His tone didn't leave any room for arguing. Even though Crow was younger then both his crew mates, he had authority, and disagreeing with him generally wasn't a good idea. Toyo and Zen gave him one last look, and Crow looked right back at them, and Toyo nodded.

"Alright Cappy, have fun with your door." The red head said with a teasing grin, ignoring the look he got for the nickname, waving as he started walking down the hall. Zen sighed, shaking his head and walked after his friend, sparing Crow one last look before they turned around a corner at the end of the hall. Crow watched after them until that corner before turning his attention back to the door, giving it a slightly dirty look, and he attempted to open it again.

Much to his surprise, it opened on the first try.

"Weird…" He muttered, poking his head through the door. There was a flight of stairs leading downwards, almost completely dark except for what looked at an exit towards the bottom of the stairs that lit up the bottom. He frowned, wondering whether or not the stairs were safe to go down or not, and then decided he didn't care. He'd spent enough time trying to get this damn door open, he was going to see where the hell it went. So he started down the stairs, closing the door behind him, making the dark stairway even darker.

More surprisingly, the stairs seemed sturdy enough as he travelled down them, and he praised the fact that he had such great balance. They may be sturdy, but the stairs were steep and they had no railing, and walls were never exactly the greatest hold. Everything was silent around the pirate captain, he couldn't hear any noise ahead or behind him, and he wondered vaguely how Toyo and Zen were doing in their search.

He pushed the thought from his mind as he reached close to the bottom, and jumped from where he was to the ground connected to the last step, and the sudden bright light from the open door made him wince, sneezing slightly as he blinked a few times.

The room had a stone floor, and the ceiling was wooden with supports running all about holding up the floor above it from crashing down. There were a few tables strewn about, and he could see from a distance that they, at least a few of them, had…bones, or at least the one closest to him did. He made a slightly disgusted face an entered the room completely, and stopped completely…one of those tables didn't have bones. "Ren!" She was on one of the tables; she looked like she was sleeping. He hurried over and tried shaking her shoulders, but she wouldn't wake up, and she seemed to be just barely breathing. Crow set her back down gently, surely, he thought, if she was here, Seto had to be close by? He turned around away from Ren, and found he was right.

Farther into the room, towards the back, was the familiar turquoise over coat, dirtied from being on the ground, and the maroon hair that was matted down. He didn't need to see the face to know who it was. He ran.

"Seto!"

END CHAPTER

….I'm an evil, lazy person. I've been gone for like, three months, and I leave you with a cliff hanger chapter -_- I'm not going to promise when this is going to be updated next, I hope soon, but I know that if I set a deadline I'll go horribly over it…sorry you got stuck with a slightly lazy author.

Anyways! On a brighter note, next chapter is the end of the Seven bells arc (yes, I have this divided into arcs). I would also like to say a few things to answer a few complaints I've gotten. Yes, Ren has been important in the story so far, it's because she's a main character too! This might be primarily Seto/Crow, but she still plays an important role, and she played a big one this arc (you'll find out next chapter). As for the lack of Seto/Crow so far…they've only known each other for about a month, and I don't think people can fall in love that fast, so that's why the romance is taking so long. One thing I CAN promise is that there's going to be romance up the road, just not yet.

Anyways! With that out of my system, please review. I kinda doubt anyways reading this anymore, but I do hope I've got some people still hanging on~

-Sleepy ;D


	13. The Start and the End

"Seto!"

The form on the ground shifted slightly as Crow ran, but a sudden movement Crow didn't know the meaning of, he skidded as he stopped by his friend. Crow kneeled down, rolling Seto onto his back, and made a face when the movement made the maroon haired boy wince. However, that was not the only thing he was making a face at. His face was dirty, though (thankfully) aside from a few scratches there didn't seem to be an immediate damage…the rest of his head was another story. His hair was matted with dirt and blood; he was worried to check the extent of the damage there in case he made it worse. He was about the check Seto for other bruises, or if he had any broken bones when his friend said something.

"C-Crow…" His voice was small as he cracked an eye open to look at Crow, a small smile forming on his face "You found me…?" Crow laughed quietly at that.

"I always find you, did our games of hide and seek teach you nothing?" He teased/asked, pushing a stray piece of hair out of Seto's face, and the boy smiled again. "Lets get you and Ren out of here, you think you can walk? I can't wake Ren up so I think I'll have to carry her." The smile fell.

"I-I dunno if I can walk…" He admitted "Are Toyo and Zen not here…?"

"They're still exploring upstairs, I came down here cause the door was giving me issues earlier." He said with a small grin, trying to make the boy smile again, to no avail. His frown sunk farther down, he looked on the verge of crying.

"T-Take Ren up first…something's wrong with her, sh-she's dying…" Crow's eyes widened.

"How can you tell? She just looks like she's asleep." Crow replied, frowning. Seto moved his hands upwards with a wince, shaking as he brought it up to Crow's cheek. The initial shock made both boys gasp, but it was a familiar enough shock that neither boy tried to move away from it. Crow glanced down into the rainbow inferno that was raging in Seto's left eye, thinking now that he'd missed seeing it these past two days they'd been apart. He looked at it fondly, before the hand on his cheek pinched him slightly, and his attention was brought back to Seto who's face was etched in white, surrounded by silver on one side but the same as it had been moments ago on his left side, aside from his eye. He was giving crow a slightly exasperated look, and moved his head slightly in the direction where Ren was laying on one of the tables, silently urging him to look over there. When he did, he kind of regretted it.

Now, Crow didn't know the first thing about this…white vision stuff, and he would never claim to, but something told him that what he was seeing right now was incredibly bad. Whenever he generally saw Ren when he and Seto were in contact, she always has this big, obnoxious flame about her, and it wasn't big and obnoxious it was still really prominent and looked like it was going to catch something nearby on fire. That was not what he was seeing right now. It was tiny…the kind of fire that couldn't even light anything, like someone had kicked dirt over it trying to put it out. By the looks of it, it was about to go out…even as he looked at it, it was getting smaller.

"So that's what you meant…" Crow said quietly, reaching up and taking Seto's hand of his cheek, holding it in his gloved hand. "I'll get her out of here, and then I'll come back for you, alright?"

"I'll be waiting." Seto said, smiling as he gave Crow's hand a squeeze before letting it go and resting it with a wince on top of his chest.

Laughter erupted behind them, and Crow stood as he swung around to face it, his hand automatically going to his sword. The laughter was coming from a small, thin girl in a patchwork, raggedy dress, with long, unkempt hair that was so long it was spread around her on the floor. She continued laughing, not even stopping to take a breath. It was kind of creepy.

Crow flinched slightly, feeling a hand around the top of his boot, and his right eye went white. What he saw was creepier, and possibly wrong on way more levels, then the little girl's laugh. It was a sickly pink woman, and by sickly pink, she was literally the color. Her dress, her hair, what he could see of her skin (her hands were covering her face, like she was crying), and she was floating.

"What the hell are you kid?" Crow asked, and the laughter abruptly stopped. The girl was staring at him with a blank sort of smile.

"What do you want me to be?" The voice, while it sounded creepy, was a child's voice. It sounded like an innocent kid, but there was insanity mixed into on small levels and on large ones. And then, the little girl wasn't there. Bright honey golden eyes stared at him, smiling cutely "I can be cute and adorable," A voice, Lotte's voice, said, smiling brightly at him. The image suddenly flickered, and standing there with her violet hair pulled back was Silvia, with a soft smile on her face "Or I can be a loving big sister." Again, another flicker, and a pair of orange eyes were scowling at him over thin black frames. "Or I can be a snarky tomboy." Bique said, before there was another flicker…which was honestly nightmare inducing.

"_o_R I c_**a**_**N** B**e** t_H_**e** _r_e_L_I**aB**l_e_ _G_I**r_L_** **w**h_o_ l**o**v**E**_s_ c_A_**ts**." Half of Ren was standing there. And by half, it was literally HALF of her body split down completely on the other side of her nose, the half that wasn't her body was leaking thick fog. The half face of Ren with a grin on it was an image Crow doubted he would ever get out of his head "O**r** I _CA_n bE, a_f_T_E_r I fiNi**_s_**H E**aT**_I_nG h_e_R."The thing shrugged with it's one shoulder and flickered, going back to the long, black haired little girl. She smiled at him "But that's not what you meant, right? You meant literally what I am, like am I a monster, right?"

"If you knew what I was asking why'd you go through that crazy slide show?" Crow asked annoyed, not letting said crazy slide show get to him. The girl shrugged in reply.

"I'm a monster." She replied simply "My fog gets inside of people's heads, and I control what they see, what they feel. I know what their thinking, and I can adjust it when I need to."

"How're you switching between all those people?" He wasn't sure if he was stalling by asking these questions, or what he was stalling if he was. The pink lady in his right eye barely moved aside from when the little girl walked a few times while she'd been talking, and he'd taken note of a whole ton of knifes sticking out of her back around some weird sort of lump.

"Well, you gotta hear the story to know that!" Crow internally groaned, monster or not, he disliked this kid. She was creepy, and way too cheerful, considering what the hell she was talking about. "You know about the bells, right? Well, the story you heard was true, the one you got from Zen and Ren. A long time ago they used to give bells to orphaned, homeless girls in the city to give them a home. But one little girl wasn't chosen, even though her friends were, and her friends left her behind. And the little girl was jealous, she felt angry and betrayed by her friends. You can guess where this is going, right?" The little girl asked, an amused smile on her face.

"Her anger festered and festered, grew and grew…and then she met me, and I promised to make her dreams come true." The girl pushed an overly long strand of hair out of her face "In exchange for her body, I could turn her into the girls, she could take their places in those homes and she could feel loved. And she accepted, and told me to get rid of anyone who had a bell around their neck. So I went into the city as her and made the other seven girls…disappear, and took their souls and their bells, which is how I could look like them. But the problem was that once I got all the girls, the townspeople noticed that they were acting strange, because it was the little girl. So I spread my influence over the town, and made them think everything was alright. But the little girl got a big head, she wanted more and more, she wanted revenge on the whole city…and in exchange for her wish, I took her soul, and I killed the entire town." She ended brightly, Crow's eyes widened.

"You killed them?" He asked. The little girl nodded, smiling cheerily.

"Yup! But then I started getting bored…there was no one around, you know? No thoughts to infiltrate, my fog was nothing more than a decoration…and then people like you started coming, looking for treasure. It was so fun, seeing them wandering around for so long, talking to them, fooling them with my illusions, getting into their heads…but because of that last order from that little girl, I couldn't kill anyone because they weren't from town, but I could make them go away if I gave them bells. But one time this guy came and stole them, so I had to go back to just leading them to their deaths, and then you guys came, and the girl had my bells!" The little girl giggled. "And I it figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to get another form to run around in, after all these years."

Crow was silent for a little while, before he asked "Is that all?" The little girl nodded "Then I have one other question, why did you involve Seto in this? He didn't have any of the bells."

"He was part of the Tribe, duh. He kept seeing through my fog and it was pissing me off!"

"Tribe? What are you talking about?"

"You mean you don't know?" The monster seemed genuinely surprised at that. "Wow…I know someone who can answer better if you're willing to wait." Crow gave her a slightly confused look.

"Ask God when you meet him!"

* * *

Toyo and Zen, above on the first floor, both had a unanimous sigh of defeat. They weren't finding anything, the entire place was rotting and aside from a set of small stairs leading up to the roof, the place only seemed to have one floor. The search itself was fruitless, aside from some really fascinating molding items which Toyo had to pull Zen away from, the place was empty of people and most forms of life aside from some moss and random little shoots of grass. Which inevitably lead to sighs of general defeat.

"You think Crow had any luck with that door?" Toyo asked, leaning carefully against a wall to make sure it didn't fall under his weight as his silver haired friend sat down to tie his shoe.

"Doubt it, if the three of us couldn't get it open together, I doubt he managed to himself." Zen shrugged "Captain or not, he's still only a kid. And that thing was stuck pretty tight."

"You know, he probably ended up stabbing it or shooting it, that's a way to get through, right?" The red head asked with a small grin. Zen stood up, brushing off his pants with the same look on his face.

"You know, I wouldn't put it past him."

* * *

The first attack came like lighting, quite almost exactly like it without the bright light and the boom afterwards. It was incredibly fast, the way that spike of hair suddenly shot at him, and he had to dodge to the side, nearly falling since Seto's hand was on his ankle still. The monster girl giggled and another tendril of hair shot out at him, which this time he effectively dodged because Seto let go of him, and Crow drew his sword, contemplating whether or not monster hair was able to be cut, and also whether or not monster hair had the ability to block bullets. A gun would make perfect sense for this fight, but he didn't want to waste ammo.

Another black tendril shot out at him, and Crow slashed at it with his sword, cutting a few strands that fell to the floor while the main thing of hair writhed sort of like a wounded snake. Crow couldn't help but grin slightly, the pain of the hair seemed to have reached the girl, judging by the pained look on her face.

"You big meanie-face!" The monster whined, sounding like a spoiled kid, and all of a sudden the room was filled with giggling. Giggling that wasn't coming from the monster.

"Here I _cooooooommmmeeeee~_!" The voice came from directly behind him, and then whatever it was kicked him in the back of the leg. Crow swung his arms to keep his balance, swinging his sword about slightly erratically as a giggling voice and foot steps seemed to run away from him. More giggling, this time from the little girl, reached his ears. Crow growled slightly in the back of his throat, annoyed. Out of the corner of his eyes, he thought he saw something, but he couldn't tell…he did, however, move when he saw it out of paranoia, and saw quite possibly what had kicked him in the leg before. It had been a fairly faint outline of a pair of legs, small legs, like a kid's. That certainly explained the giggling. He swung out where he thought he saw it, and felt his sword go through something. The unearthly giggling intensified, and the giggling stopped entirely as if it vanished.

Crow let out a triumphant grin, until something kicked behind his knee again and he nearly fell again, and then felt a very sharp pain as a tendril of black monster hair flew forward and tried to stab him.

"Oh come on…this is hardly fair." He muttered. He was up against an enemy (or possibly enemies, he didn't even know that!) and whatever called them forward, that was attacking him while he was dodging what she summoned. He was going to get impaled if this kept going, and death by hair was WAY to anti-climactic an end for him. But how was he supposed to attack enemies he couldn't see?

"That door is a pain in the ass to open!" Both people in the basement turned to look at the door to the stairwell leading upstairs, where a pair of familiar voices were drifting from.

"Crow might've had a point," They heard Toyo reply "Who'dve thought that there was a basement to this place." There was a dull thunk, and the previously stated red head poked his head through the door. "Hey Cappy~ Who's the kid?"

"I told you not to call me that! It's Crow or Captain, next time you call me that I'm going to stab you."

"Yikes, testy huh?" Toyo asked with a minor grin, stepping out into the room "Anyways, who's the kid?"

"How about you ask Ren and see if she answers?" Toyo looked majorly lost for a brief moment, before he saw the purple clad laying on one of the tables. He looked back to Crow, who had a serious look on his face, and without words something clicked, Zen took about a moment longer before it came together.

"Hey!" All three boys turned "Quit annoying me!" The little girl looked incredibly angry, and a chorus of childish giggles filled the room to the pattering of multiple pairs of feet.

"Crow! B-behind you!" It was Seto, who while visibly in pain, was standing, and looked scared out of his wits. Taking the advice, the pirate captain slashed behind him, feeling the same weird sort of feeling that his sword was passing through something, and in a brief flash he saw what exactly. He had been right in assuming he'd seen legs, because aside from some freaky colored wisp that replaced the top part of the torso starting at the hips, all that seemed to be running around was a pair of legs.

The legs vanished as quickly as they came, leaving behind laughed as they vanished, while behind him Toyo was knocked down from a kick from behind. Mentally, Crow was both highly annoyed and mildly pissed. Apparently, reinforcements did not help the situation; it quite possibly made the entire situation worse. The dark haired little monster girl shot Seto a dirty look, and a sharp, spike-ish tendril of hair shot in his direction, which he barely managed to dodge and tripped in the process of doing so, barely keeping his balance to stand. Crow cursed quietly, running over to him, and dodging the bolt of hair that tried to impede his way.

"Is there anything you can't see?" He asked when he finally got over there, almost sounding irritated as he pulled out his sword in front of Seto, taking his hand back again. Obviously, this was no way to fight. Seto was injured and moving would be a terrible idea, however the red head was the only one who could see what was going on, and just telling them from the side lines was going to get him attacked. However, since he could see what was going on now, he could at least help out his crew. The room, in fact, aside from the monster, had two sets of legs running around, a lot less then he'd originally figured.

"Toyo, attack behind you!" The red head gave him a confused look, before doing as asked and swinging his sword where there seemed to be nothing in his line of sight, however his sword passed through something and from Crow's point of view the pair of legs was knocked back on it's hind-end(?) momentarily before jumping back up, and it started running again. These things were harder to kill then he'd thought.

However, in his new line of sight, he realized something other then the enemies that were running around out of their view. The little monster girl's actual weird lady form had a whole ton of knifes floating about her, which Crow had to assume were the ones that had been sticking out of her back, that flew out whenever any of the hair did for an attack. And it seemed like something in her back was glowing now that there weren't any knifes there, it wasn't all that bright, but it was there nonetheless. What the heck was it?

Crow grunted, slashing at one of the knifes/tendrils of hair (he was going to start getting the stupid things confused) as it shot towards them, seemingly with more force than the last few times and he called out a warning to his crew before they were attacked from behind. His mind was going a million miles a minute, trying to find a way out of the situation they'd found themselves in. Obviously, the little monster ghost girl…thing, was behind it all, so did that mean getting rid of her would solve everything?

"I've got an idea." He whispered, before once again loudly warning Zen about an attack that was about to come from behind. Toyo's sword had broken, which had ticked him off (more so when he was attacked from behind and couldn't attack), however there was only one pair of legs running around now, so it was almost worth the loss.

Seto gave him a worried look. "You're not going to get yourself hurt, are you?" He got a shrug and a slightly confident smile in reply. "Maybe?" Was Crow's answer.

The pirate let go of his hand before any complaints could be made, and took off in somewhat of a mad dash towards the monster towards the center of the room. The little girl caught sight of him easily, and a tendril of hair shot out immediately while across the room by his crew members the giggling had halted entirely, which he assumed meant the little giggling ghost legs thing was gone, and the thing in the center of the room was all that was left.

He dodge rolled to the side, the hair missing him by a few inches, and took back running, getting closer even as the monster child turning to focus it's attention on keeping him back. Toyo and Zen joined in trying to rush the thing, and soon spikes and tendrils of hair were shooting out every which way in an attempt to get them farther away, to no apparent avail.

Apparent, being the key word there. One of the tendrils managed to wrap around Toyo's foot like a tentacle, taking him off his feet and throwing him into a wall on the far side, making sediment of some sort come drifting down from the ceiling above them. Zen was tripped by a tendril on the ground he didn't see, and met the same fate as Toyo, being thrown rather harshly in the opposite direction in which he'd been running. Crow barely dodged a lock of black hair that was lying on the floor in front of him, which snapped up when he jumped over, barely missing his foot.

Crow's plan was quite simple, or at least when he'd thought of it standing by Seto, it had all seemed VERY simple. That weird, glowing thing in the monsters back that hadn't shown up until the knifes/hair tendril things started flying, that had been holding her back shut. Surely, if general random monster knowledge applied, that had to be it's weak spot? At least that's what he hoped it was, if not he was running quite possibly to his death for no reason at all. Then again, he had a tendency to do this on a daily basis, he mused, so what did one more near death experience have to add to the list?

Once Crow got closer, the attacks became harder to dodge and more frequent. He had nothing to thank for dodging them except his incredibly awesome agility, or else he'd have been thrown across the room or worse, who knew what exactly happened when one of those things stabbed into you? They were knifes in another plain/dimension!

The pirate blocked another attack, attempting to get behind the monster girl, however a stray tendril of hair that had been laying on the ground right next to the girl finally managed to do what none of the others had been able. Crow was yanked harshly off of his feet, the hair swinging him like he was attached to a rope and swung him, sending him flying away from the monster, landing just short of smacking into the wall. The girl's laugh peeled out in the almost completely silent room.

Almost instantly, the girl was over his body on the ground, standing on her tendrils of hair almost like how those storybook spiders stand over their prey. The childish smile was all but gone, and now that she was close Crow could see that the sweet little girl smile had been hiding a rather sharp set of teeth, or what looked like teeth.

"Really, did you think that would work?" The monster girl asked, her voice still sounding sweet even as she leaned rather threateningly over him. Crow's hands and feet were quickly pinned to the ground by spare tendrils of hair, having oddly strong grips for being, you know, hair. The grinning face turned to look at Seto, who was still standing, having not moved from his spot. His eyes were panicked, darting from crow to the creature, and occasionally to where Toyo and Zen were lying on the floor. "Time to keep my promise." She said, the look on her face morphing into a predatory grin as she turned her head back to stare straight at Crow, yet another few spikes of hair lifting from the ground and poising themselves above Crow (but under the girl, somehow), ready to stab down and end the pirate's life.

"Are you watching, you annoying little tribal? I'll start with the captain, then go on to the crew, and then you'll meet your end. Sound good to you?" The monster didn't even wait for an answer, the spikes of hair taking aim and striking downwards, all aimed for Crow.

The smell of burning hair quickly made itself apparent.

The spikes stopped, and the monster and Crow (and Seto, for that matter), looked confused. And then the monster screamed, and it was rather obvious why. One of the tendrils holding down Crow, one of the ones on his feet, was covered in flames half way up, _blue_ flames. Shrieking, the monster swung the tendril wildly, hitting it against the ground in vain. It seemed the fire did not want to go out, and the more she tried the farther it spread before it was up to her head and going down the tendril on Crow's other ankle. While he still didn't entirely understand what was going on, Crow wasn't about to let this chance go to waste. Swinging his leg up in a rolling motion, he knocked the already off-balance and distracted monster girl off him and onto the ground, knocking up a cloud of dust. The fire was spreading quickly, very quickly having already gone up most of her head, and had reached down to light her raggedy patch-work dress on fire. Crow stood up (not shaking whatsoever, of course), and watched as the fire continued to spread in a sort of awe. It was the same kind of feeling one got watching a ship sink, it was slightly painful to watch, but you couldn't tear your eyes away.

"You foul little tribal brat!" The monster cursed, loudly, still trying to put out the blue fires in vain "How dare you! **HOW DARE YOU!**" The little monster girl gave out a vicious, hateful yell, lunging for Seto and aiming for his throat with her bare hands now that her hair seemed rather…dead, for lack of better words. Or at least it was working the way it was supposed to, the few pieces that did move always fell back down. The acrid smell of burnt hair filled the air.

Moving quickly, Crow was back in front of Seto, sword drawn. The girl drew closer, and Crow stabbed his sword forward, a through and through front to back with ease, and had he been sharing Seto's vision he'd have probably been proud of the fact that the odd, dim light coming from the monster's back had gone out. Her image flickered one last time, and she turned to dust. Well, not exactly dust…what one had to assume were her bones collapsed onto the ground surrounded by dust, possibly a final illusion that had been the only thing keeping her around. The smell of burnt hair still hung strong in the air, but the creature was dead, gone. On the other side of the room, there was a small chorus of groans as Zen and Toyo say up, probably in pain. Being thrown into a wall will probably do that to you. Crow rolled his eyes quietly, turning around to check on how his red headed friend was. He wasn't dying, that officially meant he was open for questioning.

"The heck did that thing mean by Tribal Brat and all that? And since when in the seven seas could you randomly summon fire?" He asked, crossing his arms and sounding both irritated and curious at the same time. Seto stared at him for a few seconds, before slowly shaking his head.

"I…don't really know, Crow."

* * *

The trip back through the dense woods was a pain, especially with Ren unconscious (Toyo was carrying her bridal style, they were all silently praying she didn't wake up and beat them up for it), Crow was supporting Seto, who while not exactly dead was still not in the best shape imaginable, while Zen scouted ahead of them. While no one said anything about it, they were all thinking and dreading the same thing in the back of their minds. They still had no idea how long they had been under that strange creature's influence, and were all aware that there was a chance that the ship was not still at the docks, waiting for their return. It was fairly late in the day, the sun setting behind the trees pretty far off and giving all the trees that odd sort of twilight orange color, it was pretty, but the only one who seemed to notice was Zen.

The island was dead silent, for years upon years there hadn't been any sort of wild life on the island which left everything with a sort of emptiness even though it was pretty. Seto couldn't help but feel the slightest bit of sympathy for the monster girl. He knew it wouldn't have made any sort of difference, of course, if there had been something to keep her company. But a hundred years alone, just waiting…it seemed so sad to him. He sighed quietly, moving his thoughts onto other things. Ren was going to be ticked when she woke up and found her seven bells gone, but it was worth not taking the time to look for them to see her fire burning steadily again.

* * *

Going back through town was creepy, on multiple levels for all involved. The buildings they had been in, especially the house they'd been staying in, were all crumbling wrecks, time having taken it's toll long before they had even gotten here. The silence was broken, finally, by a loud meow ahead of them, and the sound of padded feet running towards them over the few remaining uncovered cobblestones. Ahead of them was a small three kitty team, Kin, Batty, and Hoshi, with the big black cat leading the way over to them.

The small gray kitten hurried over to Seto, rubbing worriedly up against his uninjured leg, mewing with obvious concern, while Batty was giving Toyo the darkest look that should have been possible for a cat to pull off. Zen chuckled and walked over, scratching Kin behind the ears. Crow let himself smile slightly, and felt a happy thrill go through him. Either the cats had been wandering around aimlessly the entire time they were gone, or the ship was still in the port.

"C'mon, reunions can wait. We need to get back." He said, starting forward again with Hoshi following at his and Seto's heels, the same scene was with Bat and Toyo while Zen and Kin walked ahead of them side by side. Soon enough, the ship, in all it's glory, was still docked. Crow wasn't sure when the last time he'd been so happy to see that ship was.

* * *

The first thing they did when they got back on was go over to the ship doctor, and middle aged man with light brown hair tied back in a small ponytail who everyone just called Doc (Crow didn't even know his real name), to get a once over and drop off Ren. After theirs, Zen and Toyo (the latter seemingly reluctant) left to go check around with the crew before heading back to their bunks. Though Seto persisted he was perfectly fine Crow made him stay long enough to get bandaged up by the doctor, he had a few bruised ribs and a concussion, his left ankle had some sort of fracture (surprisingly, nothing was dangerously broken), not only to add the number of bruises he was covered in.

"Fine my ass." Crow muttered, giving Seto a look as Doc wrapped his chest with bandages before moving to set his ankle. Seto blushed quietly, and attempted to make small talk with the doctor while he worked.

"So um, Doc, how long were we gone?" He asked, wincing slightly as the man finished with his ankle and moved to get some bandages for his head.

"Only about a day and a half, good thing you guys came back when you did. We were gonna head in there if you took any longer." He said, coming back from the cabinet to where Seto sat on one of the cots. Crow gave the man an annoyed look.

"Even though I said not to follow after us?" He asked, though the question didn't really warrant an answer, Doc didn't give him one either aside from a small shrug of the shoulders. Standing back up straight, he looked over Seto once again and nodded.

"Alright, that should be everything." He said "Just be sure to rest a lot and don't strain yourself, stay off that ankle for a few days. I'll probably come check up on you so-"

"No need Doc, I'll be taking care of him." Crow cut in, his voice holding an odd sort of possessive authority that Seto didn't register, but the doctor had to keep a smirk down off of his face.

"Alright Captain, whatever you say. I'll have my hands full with first mate Ren as it is, she seems fine, but it's probably best to keep her here until she wakes up." Crow nodded silently and waited for Seto to put his shirt back on, before he put his arm over his shoulder and helped him out of the room. When the door closed behind them, Doc couldn't help a small chuckle.

* * *

The ship set sail from Ribon after sun set, though the team who had been exploring the island town were all under the deck in their respective rooms (minus Ren, who was with the doctor in the infirmary), and as the ship sailed onwards and the night got later, soon everyone retired and went to sleep.

It was at this time that Crow woke up to the sound of Seto moving around in the bed they shared, which was a normal occurrence for the pair since Crow was a light sleeper, though tonight something seemed different. Rolling over in the dark, Crow made out the faint shape of Seto who was oddly not asleep for the time of night sitting up in bed, curled up in a sort of ball.

"That cannot be good for your ribs." He dead panned dryly, and though he didn't see it, he felt the bed shift slightly when Seto jumped at the sound of his voice.

"I-I couldn't sleep…" He said, his voice sounding as if he was apologizing. Crow sighed, reaching to the nightstand on his side of the bed and lighting the oil lamp that sat there, giving the room a dim, pale yellow orange hue, but lighting it up enough for the boys to be able to see each other. The first thing Crow took notice of were Seto's eyes, they were puffy and kind of red, like he'd been crying. He sat up, his normal scowl turning into a worried look as he leaned over closer to Seto.

"I can tell." He said, reaching up and brushing some of the hair out from in front of Seto's eyes, his hand briefly brushing the red haired boy's forehead and sending a small jolt between them. "Bad dream?" He guessed. Seto nodded, blushing slightly. Crow gave him a patient look, but it was also seemingly inpatient. All in all it was hard to read. "Are you going to tell me or just sit there?" He asked, giving Seto a look. The boy just blushed a tad darker, averting his eyes to somewhere else.

"We were back in that building, the factory and we were back in the basement, and Ren was dead and that monster looked like her and Toyo and Zen were gone and you were on the ground and you were lying really still on the ground and monster Ren was standing over you with a really scary smile andIthinkyouweredeadandthat'swhenIwokeup." The last bit came out in a rush, and Crow wasn't entirely sure he'd caught all of it. Seto was blinking, reliving that part of the dream and trying very hard to not start crying again.

"Well, obviously I'm not dead." Crow stated, his trademark catty grin slowly worming onto his face as he leaned closer to Seto, wiping away one of the tears that managed to get past all the blinking. "Could someone dead do this?" He asked quietly and leaned forward to close the gap between them, a kiss that sent a very large jolt in between them both, neither boy pulled away until Seto did, blushing.

"What the-? Did you…just…W-why did you do that!" Seto stammered, his eyes sort of wide and his blush a much more dark shade of red, Crow would have mused it was possibly almost the shade of his hair.

"What's wrong? We're friends now, right? And friends give each other kisses…" Crow paused, coughing slightly "I mean, I read that in a book."

"But that was my first kiss!"

Crow smirked slightly "That just means that I'm officially you're best friend, and you're stuck with me." The smirk softened slightly more in a smile "We are best friends, right?" Seto blinked and was silent for a moment, before he smiled back.

"Yeah, best friends…" He replied. Somewhere, vaguely in the back of his mind as sleep start to take over, Seto realized something. He didn't think that after all of this, that he would be able to live with his best friend, Crow.

End Chapter

Gods above, that took way longer then it was supposed you. I re-wrote that fight scene I don't know how many times, I think we've been over this, I cant write fight scenes well, so I'm sorry if it turned out like crap -.-;

On a side note, yay! They kissed! It's a good thing I knew where to find the scene with the kiss from the game, I wanted to try and recapture it, though obviously it's a tad edited, but not a lot. Love may not be able to happen within a month, but surely everyone agrees that a crush can happen in that amount of time~?

And with that, it is the end of the Seven Bells arc! Hooray! The next two chapters are going to be kinda short filler ones while I try and figure out a good way to start the next arc up (though this one with less drama), I know how it's going to go, but I need to figure out a good way to make it work first! But until then, I hope this chapter is good for those of you still hanging on for this lazy author, it was about 11 pages on Word, so I hope it's a good apology for taking so long ^^;

Anyways, until next time!

-Sleepy ;D


	14. Bedridden Reading

_Secretly, for a time after our first meeting, me and the young pirate captain continued to meet in secret on the beach, chasing each other and playing together in games of hide and seek. Before I realized it, and I'm pretty sure before he realized it too we were friends, best friends. The boy didn't scare me anymore, and he quit picking on me as much, though there were obvious problems with the friendship that we never talking about, never really thought about. We both knew that one day, when his ship was fixed, he would have to leave. The pirate had never brought this up before, but I knew it was true, but I never brought it up either because I didn't want to upset him, or make him realize how much I would miss him._

_When it happened, finally, I think I sort of knew it was happening. My friend (I knew I could call him that now) had less of a bravado then usual, something just seemed altogether wrong. He told me with a serious, but slightly sad face, that his ship was repaired, and that they would be leaving when night fell. What he asked then was what made it feel as if I'd been shot._

_"Will you come with me?"_

_"I cant…"_

_"Why not?"_

_"I'm not much of a pirate."_

_"I'll teach you!"_

_"What about my family?"_

_That caused my friend to pause for a moment, and study my obviously torn face, he could tell it was just as serious a question as his. I wanted to go with him, go with my friend, continue having fun days together. But I had my family to go home to, who would worry about me, and would be vehement about me going and becoming a pirate. All the times we'd played together, once he'd asked if he could come to my house, and he'd guessed the answer from the frightened look on my face. My parents hated pirates, if they'd found out about him, they'd have done something…drastic._

_Suddenly, he clasped my hands in his, and his look changed._

_"What about when you grow up? Will you come with me then?" He asked, hope in his voice, and I had to blink at the sudden question, but I nodded without hesitation._

_"Yeah, I'll stay here for when you come back." I said, a grin coming to my face "You better come back, if you don't I wont forgive you." He grinned._

_"By the time I come back, I'll be a famous pirate, so famous that whenever I do something, you'll hear about it, I'll have the largest bounty ever and be the most feared pirate on the seas." He said confidently, letting go of my hands and taking a proud stance, I had to laugh._

_We played for the rest of the day, tag was the game of choice that day, and it seemed for awhile that nothing was different then any other day. I couldn't catch him without tricking him somehow, and he always caught me unless he was purposely holding back. We continued like this until it started going down, and the sun started going down beneath the sea, when we stood and faced each other on the sand for the last time in awhile._

_"Take care." I said, smiling, trying to at least send him off with a smile. He nodded, and started to walk away. I caught his arm and hade him turn around, catching him in a hug that obviously surprised him, but he hugged me back anyways. Pulling back, I dug through my pockets and pulled out something he recognized, it was what he'd stolen from me when we first met._

_"This is my lucky charm, you better bring that back to me!" I demanded, shoving it into his hands without waiting for a question on the subject. After a moment, he clutched his hand around it and shot me a confident smile._

_"I promise."_

_He left for his ship after that, and from the spot on the beach where he'd left me, I saw the ship sail off big and imposing. It would be years until we would see each other again._

* * *

The door opened into the captain's quarters, stirring Kin enough to glare at Crow who had interrupted the story Seto was telling them. Hoshi had long since fallen asleep on Seto's good leg, and the person in question looked up and blinked at Crow when he came in.

"Hey Crow." He greeted smiling, closing the copy of Pirate's Isle he'd stolen from crow's bookshelf and setting it on the nightstand. It was well into the afternoon, but with his leg, even though it'd been a few days, Crow was wary to let him be walking around on it and insisted he stay in bed. He'd gotten bored, though.

Crow sent him a soft grin and walked over and sat on the bed, careful of the cats who were dozing there as well. "How you feeling?" He asked, for about the third time that day, and Seto sighed quietly.

"I told you, I'm fine today." He said, a slight whine in his voice "You really need to go out and run the ship, I'm not going to die, I promise." Doc had been and out over the last few days as well, and had removed some of the bandages on the smaller injuries. The scratches and bruises were mostly healed, and the bandages were off of his head now, though the doctor told him to tell him immediately if something felt off. His ribs were more or less a dull pain, and his leg only bothered him if he moved it wrong. Crow shot him a look.

"I am running the ship, but I'm in charge of your health, so I have to come check up on you." He stated, crossing his arms in a defiant manner. Seto sighed again, shaking his head. Crow grinned slightly and leaned over, giving Seto a peck on the cheek before standing up in a slightly dramatic manner.

"Well then! I shall check up on you again later." Crow said and started for the door, before pausing and digging through one of his giant pockets. He tossed what he pulled out at Seto, who caught it clumsily in his hands, shooting Crow a confused look before looking it over.

"A book?" He asked, running his hands over the smooth leather cover.

"Kind of, it's more like a diary. It's all blank, there's a pen in the nightstand drawer." Crow explained, shrugging "I figured you'd be getting bored, and found that setting around, it's all blank. You know how to write, right? That's what you basically that's what it's for, you can write down thoughts and stuff, or just random things." He stopped, catching Seto giving him an odd look. "What?"

"You seem to know a lot about this," Seto said, a small, teasing smile slowly showing on his face "Do you have a diary?" He asked.

"What? Of course not!" Crow scoffed, putting his hands on his hips "I would never have something girly like that. I have a _Captain's Log_, much cooler than a diary." He stated. Seto chuckled quietly. "Anyways, I have to head back up the upper deck, I'll be back down later." The pirate said hurriedly, walking out of his room and closing the door behind him quickly.

Seto smiled, amused, and flipped through the blank book, looking at the pages.

* * *

Just saying right now, I'm NOT a medical expert, nor would I claim to be one, so as of the moment I'm relying on Ask and other search engines to make sure I'm moderately correct in how Seto gets better (for sake of time, and plot development, Seto has a small hairline fracture in his leg).

I finally figured out how I wanna proceed into the next arc, so hopefully I'll be doing good on updating for awhile (again, no immediate promises on that…).

Though as for this little mini chapter, it's mainly for myself and humor. Myself, because I like keeping Pirate Isle involved, and just because picking on Crow is fun~ You can probably guess what the next chapter is going to be.

Until next time~ Which I can promise will be son, cause after this one I'm going to work on the next few chapters ^^

~Sleepy ;D


	15. Dear Diary?

Dear Diary,

I really don't know what I should write in you…Crow said to write down stuff I'm thinking about, but I don't really know what I'm thinking about right now. I'm worried about Ren, she still hasn't woken up yet, even though it's been about a week. Toyo's seemed kind of off, at least from what Zen's told me. He's been sitting in the infirmary by her bedside almost every day. I always knew that he really did care about her, no matter how much they fought.

* * *

Dear Diary,

I guess I haven't really been sleeping well recently, according to Crow. I mean, I've been asleep, but he says I've been tossing and turning a lot, that's bad, I think, right? I guess I have been having sort of weird dreams recently…I haven't really told Crow yet, though, since he's busy and worried as it is. I feel kind of bad about that. One dream that's been happening a lot recently is that one where I'm trapped in a cage, I think it's a class cage, but I don't know. It was different from the first time I had it though, I don't really remember what was different though. Maybe that's what I'll use this diary for, keeping track of my dreams.

* * *

Dear Diary,

It's been about a week since I wrote last, sorry about that. Good news, though! Ren woke up, kind of. Her eyes opened up, but she seemed sort of distant and wouldn't respond to us, but Toyo seemed really happy anyways. Crow helped me out of bed to go see her, she was asleep when we got there, I had to smile though, Toyo was sleeping in the cot next to her's Zen was double checking that it was ok to leave him there. Ren really is lucky.

* * *

Dear Diary,

We stopped at a kinda creepy looking port today. It was really dingy and dark, Crow wouldn't let me out of bed to go into town with him, he said something like I'd be too easy of a target, so I looked out the window when he left. The place was scary looking! All the fires made it look like the place was full of thieves, and a few of them weren't fires, a few people were dogs! And there was one guy who looked like how Vulture looked, except he was purple. He was really scary, and the reason I left the window. How do people end up looking like that, anyways? So scary…

* * *

Dear Diary,

I'm moving around again now, Crow got me something to work like a crutch while he was at that really creepy port. Why he had to get it at such a creepy place, I do not know, and he would not answer me about it. I was helping Oki out in the kitchen today (he's this really big guy with short black hair, the cats like him a lot), Crow didn't seem happy that I was out an about, but he seemed happier after I made him a snack. That's good, right?

* * *

Ren woke up today! Oh, sorry Diary…I kinda skipped greeting you, but I'm really happy! And she really, really woke up. She's talking and everything, she can't sit up well, but I'm just happy things are getting back to normal with her. Everyone on the ship was worried, they don't let on, but everyone likes having her around. Toyo seemed ecstatic; I think he'll sleep better now. She still has to stay in the infirmary for now, now.

* * *

Dear Diary,

I think it's been about three weeks since we left Ribon, and I can't get something out of my head. What do you think that girl meant when she kept saying I was from a Tribe, or something? I really don't know what she means by that, does it have something to do with where I came from? Or why I can see people's fires? And why does she know about it? It's been bothering me a lot…but I think whatever she was talking about has to do with my dreams, Crow says maybe (He read my diary and found out, he's so mean sometimes, but I guess he was just worried…) He's kind of the reason I haven't been telling you about them, Diary, sorry about that.

* * *

Seto looked over the diary entry carefully, before nodding and closing the book after dog earing on of the corners and setting it in the desk with the pen. Idly, he fiddled with the small carousal sitting on the desk, picking it up curiously. Crow told him once that it was supposed to make music, Seto hadn't figured out how yet, though. He se it down when he heard the door knob start turning, and turned to look at Crow as he came into the room.

"You up for a little trip?" He asked, grinning at the brunette.

"I guess…" Seto replied, Crow rolled his eyes.

"You could at least act a little happy about it." He commented, crossing his arms and giving Seto a look. Before the other could reply, he waved it off and started talking again "Anyways, the next place we're stopping is Merchant City to buy supplies." He explained.

"Merchant City?" Seto asked curiously.

"Yeah, it's literally a city of people selling things. Apparently there's a story behind it, ask Zen about it before we port, knowing him he probably knows it." Crow explained shrugging, and Seto had to agree, Zen probably knew.

"Anyways, we'll be there in a few hours, so be ready before we get there, kay?"

End Chap

Hmmm, a city of merchants? Where on earth could I be going with this arc…? ;)

Anyways! Next chapter is in the works already, hopefully I can get a good start into it before today ends. I got two short ones up in a day, hopefully I can add a long one and keep the trend going~

Also, if you don't recognize a few of the miscellaneous characters I mentioned, they're crewmen Ren talked about in her diary. They probably don't have much plot importance, but they're good for fillers.

Anyways! That's all for the fillers for right now, onto possibly plot related events! Oh yes, I has plans for this~!

Till next time!

~Sleepy ;D


	16. Welcome, all, to Merchant City!

As it turned out, Zen DID know a something about Merchant City, and was more than happy to endow Seto with the information he asked for. It wasn't quite what Seto was expecting, honestly.

According to Zen, the city got it's name from an old story called The Princess and the Merchant. As it's told, The King of the country and the city was having financial trouble, due to an accident the harbor where they fished and shipped out, well, lost all of it's fish, and without the fish the economy of the City plummeted, sending them into a recession. The King sent out a call all over the country, calling to everyone and asking if they knew a way to fix the problem. He also told of a reward, whoever found an answer would marry his daughter, the Princess.

Thousands came with all sorts of different ideas, and most were turned away before they even had a fighting chance to state their idea to the King and the Princess. However as time went on, nothing changed, no ideas were accepted, the flow of people coming to the castle slowed, and the city and the country remained in a wrecked state. The King was about to give up hope, when one day a lone merchant came into the palace, and stated a rather odd idea. He proposed that instead of look for a source of income within the island, to look outside. When asked what he meant, the merchant simply replied "Who knows better how to make money then a merchant?" And walked out.

The King wasn't sure what he meant, but the Princess made a suggestion, to try and bring more merchants to the city and have them bring in their money and items. It took a while, but slowly merchants began filling the city, and slowly but surely, the city began to take off again. Because of all the merchants who had set up shop there, people from other islands were coming to shop as well, and people who had already been in the city to begin with became merchants as well, regaining money back and finally coming back to prosperity. The merchant had been right. The King knew he deserved the reward that had been offered, but not knowing the merchant by name, the King was unable to find him. However, the Princess was determined to find him again, and went out into the city looking for him.

However, the Merchant found her first, and quite simply asked _"Are you smiling again now, Princess?"_

"Basically, the rest is how you'd expect it to go," Zen continued, leaning backwards on the railing as the city became fast approaching in the distance "They fell in love, and in honor of all the merchants and the original Merchant, the city was renamed."

"Wow…" Seto breathed out, only now half paying attention as he leaned over the railing to watch the city approach. It was getting close to evening, and everything was getting that really pretty glow that everything seems to get when the sun sets. The ocean was that really pretty orange, sparkly color, and that wasn't even getting to how the city looked from a distance-

"Seto!" The maroon haired boy in question jumped, turning back to look at his male silver haired companion, who was now looking at him rather annoyed. "Did you hear me?"

"Umm…no." Seto answered sheepishly. Zen sighed.

"You really have been hanging around Crow too long." Zen commented with a small sigh, running his hand through his hair mildly irritated. "I asked why you wanted to know about Merchant City." He repeated.

Seto blinked "Well, I just sort of thought that a place called Merchant City must have a neat history, is all." Seto answered, shrugging slightly before turning back to look at said approaching city "It's also very pretty."

"Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Zen replied "It sure looks pretty from here, not near as much once you get in town though." It was a true fact that from a distance, the city looked beautiful. In the setting sun's light, all the buildings had a golden glow and light was reflecting off of the windows. The ships were all docked evenly and you could see people walking with goods from even as far back as they were, and small little port shops were easily visible. That wasn't even getting to what could only presumably be the shopping plaza in the middle of the city, with a glass dome roof reflecting a rainbow of colors, making it the shiniest thing in the city.

"This place is full of liars, cheep skates, pick pockets, and conmen." Zen dead panned, walking away from the rail to go help around the deck with some of loading and unloading.

* * *

The ship docked easily at the port, and that was when the atmosphere of the place really began to set in. Even from the boat through all of the usual commotion, you could easily hear all of the talking over everything, people calling out to others, merchants talking to shoppers, shoppers talking as they passed by stalls, and everyone was busily walking around…Seto, in a single word, was quite awestruck by the sight and sound of so many people.

"Close your mouth, would you? Someone might think you're a slide show and throw something in there." Crow said with a smirk, coming up from behind and clapping a hand down on Seto's shoulder, effectively snapping him out of his mini-trance.

"That's not funny…" He shot back, following Crow as the pirate captain disembarked from the boat onto the stone docks. Did they really have those kind of side shows here? The maroon haired boy kind of wanted to see one, were they the type of people who stuck swords down their throats? He'd heard of those before, he'd seen one before once when he was travelling!

"Hey," Crow stopped, taking hold of Seto's hand "Keep close, alright? These crowds get thick and I don't want you getting lost." Seto blinked, and blushed slightly nodding; gripped Crow's gloved hand tightly as they started back into the crowd. Zen had left ahead of them earlier, something about a Library had been what they heard him shout before vanishing. Apparently Merchant City had a very expansive one, Zen wanted them to meet him there later. The Doc had told Ren that it may be best is she stayed on the boat for a few more days for safety reasons, and the silver haired girl had begrudgingly agreed. Toyo had opted to stay back to keep her company.

Crow gave a small grin, pushing past people, keeping Seto's hand in his through the crown until they broke out into a more open area where the crowds were less dense, Seto let out a breath. They hadn't been in the crowd long with Crow pushing through, but all that concentrated body heat had made the air muggy! Crow clapped him on the back again mid breath intake, and Seto went into a small coughing fit, glaring up at the grinning pirate, who was pointing out ahead of them. Seto followed his finger, annoyance immediately replaced by curiosity, and then by wonder.

It was like the main square in Garnet, people everywhere, shops selling things…but **MUCH** bigger. About ten times bigger, maybe more. It wasn't just little random food shops scattered around, there were in lines down both ways of the street they were on, people stopping by some of them and by others there were huge crowds. The items he could see the easiest were some of the pieces of jewelry that shined in the sun, hanging on others were clothes, mostly shirts and dresses, meanwhile some shops had animals. There were even a few shops in here that were like a certain silver haired girl's, they seemed to sell random, miscellaneous but very nice trinkets.

Ren would have had a _field day_ in this city.

Looking up as Crow grabbed his hand, Seto looked up to see his friend grinning at him.

"So," The purple clad boy asked "Where you wanna go first?"

* * *

It was amusing, and dare he say it, cute, the way Seto seemed to react to some of the things they passed by in the shops. Crow had wondered, while they were walking around browsing shops why Seto's eyes would light up over small things; like the (large) assortment of random keys that were tagged that lead to places that were probably abandoned by now (old hotel rooms, primarily), judging by their aged look in one shop, or a small, yellow duck toy that had probably at some point belonged to a small girl in another. The same sort of look of wonderment came to his face when he'd lift one up, like they were small treasures that were to be valued, not miscellaneous junk that probably weren't worth what the shop keepers were asking for.

It was when they were at another random shop that Seto had picked up a tarnished, old silver ring that was obviously far too big for him, it probably belonged to someone's father, that Crow's curiosity got the better of him.

"Do you want to buy that or something?" He asked, making his friend jump and break out of whatever little day dream or whatever he'd been having.

"Not really," Seto answered, frowning at him "it's not really pretty, and it's too big."

"Then why are you looking at it like that?" Crow asked, crossing his arms and giving Seto a slightly curious, slightly weird look. Seto laughed, blushing lightly.

"W-Well, I was just wondering who this might've belonged to, and what it took for it to get here." Crow gave him a look, completely not understanding what he meant "Like, you know…what if the guy who owned this was a big pirate captain at one point in time, and this ring went through gun battles and sword fights over the seas, and lost it when he died?" He asked, a hint of excitement underlying his voice "Or what if it didn't belong to a captain, but a navy officer who was a father to his men in many battles and gave it to a subordinate when he retired!" Crow rolled his eyes, snatching the ring with ease to look it over.

"It's a wedding ring." Crow dead panned, making Seto slump his shoulders dejectedly. Crow laughed and tossed it back to him "There's an inscription on the inside, see?" He said, leaning over and taking Seto's hand, pointing out the inscription date, old and almost faded completely out with time. Crow could see it from years as a pirate looting things, wasn't much of a surprise that Seto had missed it, he probably hadn't even been looking for it.

Seto, still dejected, set the ring back down on the table much to the shop owner's dismay, and re-took Crow's hand to keep walking. Vaguely, the darker haired boy thought back to only a month and a half or so back when he couldn't even touch Seto without the other squirming away from him, it was nice he was getting responses now and Seto wasn't smacking him or pushing him into things that contained liquid anymore. He almost laughed, but Seto had dragged him to another miscellaneous stand to look at.

Personally, Crow thought this might be the oddest one yet. It was full of odd things (obviously, if it was so far the oddest), there was food on the stand, candies wrapped in sky blue-ish wrappers and small bottles of liquid, stacks of dried tuna sat next to bottles of red and blue (respectively) bottles of mysterious liquids, or a few weapons and some useless junk. It wasn't only food, however, there were things setting in the back against boxes, weapons mostly. There were a few hammers, a broken stick, an old looking bamboo sword, what looked like what could be the remains of a sling shot, and a butterfly net that was painted pink.

"Well now, this is a rare treat." Both Crow and Seto jumped, looking at the man on the other side of the table who seemed to have just appeared out of nowhere. "It's not every day I chance upon someone willing to buy my wares. I roam this city in search of unique treasures and items, care to barter for anything lads?"

Staring at him, Crow decided that this guy creeped him out, right there on the spot. He couldn't tell how old he was exactly, aside from older than himself, and he had an oddly _cheery_ disposition. He also had an eye patch over his left eye, the other one was some odd mix between gold and yellow and Crow wondered how on earth he got that sort of eye color. The oddest thing about the man, though, Crow had decided, was his hair.

For one thing, it was salt blonde and spiky, it looked white but at the same time had the obvious overtones of blonde that gave it a really light golden color. The tallest spike in the front was what stood out, it was red, and right in the middle in line with the guy's nose.

He kind of reminded Crow of a chicken.

"W-Who are you?" Seto asked, breaking Crow out of musings. The chicken haired man gave them a curious look, before waving his hands dramatically as if to keep to keep balance, and then he was grinning.

"I'm the owner of this stall!" He proclaimed proudly "My name is Mar Chant, but please call me Mar, pleasure to meet you, valued customers." He answered, bowing dramatically.

There was a very large silence for a moment in which no one moved.

"You wouldn't happen to know someone named Per Chant, would you?" Seto asked, earning a slightly odd look from Crow. Mar blinked, and then his eyes lit up.

"Indeed, indeed I do! Per Chant is my father, he lives in a small little town called Garnet. You know of him?" He asked excitedly, leaning eagerly over the table close to Seto.

"Ah..er, sort of…" He answered nervously, running a hand through his hair.

"Does he still own the chicken farm?" Mar asked.

"Er, yeah, yeah he does." Seto answered. The chicken haired man nodded thoughtfully, nodding to himself. Crow was giving them both (well, more so to Mar) odd looks, wondering what and who they were discussing.

"I see." He said, pausing rather dramatically before speaking again "Well, anyways! Are you interested in anything you see on the table?" He asked cheerily. However, before Seto had a chance to reply…

"No, thank you though." Crow cut in, shaking his head and ignoring the slightly confused look on Seto's face. The chicken haired merchant frowned, but nodded nonetheless.

"Well, have it your way then," He replied, shrugging his shoulders "In honor of this most destined encounter, I have a gift for you. It's on the house!" He said, handing them both a piece of the candy wrapped in the sky blue wrappers.

"Thank you." Seto said, smiling appreciatively as Crow re-took his hand and started walking.

"Till we meet again!" Mar Chant called, waving at them excitedly from his stand.

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Crow said, going over what Seto had just told him in his head "That guy is the son of that guy with the chickens back in Garnet that that annoying rat Batty rescued you from?" He asked.

"I think so, yeah." Seto said with a nod, Crow sighed with a shake of his head. He'd almost forgotten about that whole incident, the pirate captain idly wondered how Seto managed to get into those types of situations. "Hey, Crow?"

"Yeah?"

"Weren't we have supposed to have met Zen at that Library by now?"

Both Crow and Seto looked at each other for a moment, before they took off running.

* * *

If the twitching eye and the obviously suppressed angry look on Zen's face wasn't enough to tell the two younger boys that the silver haired male was not happy with them, surely nothing else would have managed the job **besides** an unstoppable rage. Generally, Zen was pretty decent and down to earth with a bit of a snarky, know it all attitude.

He, however, _hated_ being kept waiting.

Crow crossed his arms defiantly, in a seemingly not working attempt to remind Zen who was the Pirate Captain in this situation, while Seto shuffled his feet nervously, trying to avoid his silver haired friend's eyes.

They were in the Merchant City main library, a very large building with two entire floors located and connected to right next to the main plaza, with a matching glass roof domed atop it. Both floors were filled to the excess with books and maps and charts, some higher then people could even reach (there were ladders scattered around for good measure), and at the moment they seemed to be in one of the work rooms on the second floor. There was a large table with an astrolabe setting on it, on top of multiple sea maps and sky charts, surrounded by rather large looking books that neither boy would have read willingly (Well, maybe Seto).

"You finally made it." Zen said finally, breaking the silence.

"You didn't exactly give us a time to be here." Crow shot back.

"I've been waiting." Zen continued, unhindered.

"You didn't give us a time." Crow stated, again.

"I've been working the entire time you two were out and about, without help, trying to find information that we could use, and you two left me waiting."

"You didn't give us a time!" Crow snapped, annoyed. Zen looked at him silently, before turning on his heel and walking back over to the table, sitting down and picking up one of the sky charts, looking it over without a word. For a moment the silence in the library seemed to grow.

"Are you gonna tell us what you found?" Crow asked, walking over to the table and setting his hands on it, looking over the charts that were seemingly scattered at random. Seto walked over and stood next to him, a worried look on his face as he looked between the two of them.

"If you apologize." Was the dead pan reply they got back. Crow grumbled under his breath, annoyed. He crossed his arms defiantly, refusing to apologize for such a silly reason that wasn't even their fault. In turn, Zen simply shrugged and picked up another chart. The silence continued on. Seto found it rather unnerving, the tension between the two of them…he sort of missed Toyo and Ren being here with them. If anything, they would have cleared things up quickly, Toyo would have said something and gotten Zen out of whatever mood he was in, and Ren and Crow would get into their usual routine until he stopped them, and then things would be back to normal. Zen would have been telling them what he'd found by now.

Gently, he nudged Crow with his elbow, who looked at him. Seto nodded towards Zen, who hadn't really moved much aside from switching from a chart to one of the books. Crow gave him an annoyed, questioning look, to which Seto replied with a silent pleading one. Crow rolled his eyes silently.

"I'm sorry." He said finally, turning back to face the silverette at the table, who didn't look up when he spoke.

"I realized that as of recently, we haven't had much luck in finding the legendary treasure from the people of the moon, and we haven't found a lot of information on it in months," Zen replied, finally, motioning them over to his side of the table. Carefully, they walked over, wary, but nonetheless curious.

"The People of the Moon, as you know, are a mythical race said to have come to earth to escape the hierarchy that had taken over the Moon, bringing most of their treasure and building a civilization resembling their old one here on earth, hidden somewhere. Sadly, however, there was a traitor amongst their group and the majority were killed, leaving almost none of them left and their kingdom uninhabited-Seto, are you alright?" Zen asked, looking up from his book only to see Seto with…what could only be described as a torn look on his face.

"Seto?" Crow questioned, putting a hand on his shoulder softly, giving him a worried look.

"I'm fine, my head just started hurting," Seto said "But…isn't that really sad?" He asked, his voice quivering. "They tried to find a new way of life, and they were all killed…" Crow and Zen traded looks mixed between confused and worried, looking at Seto and slightly at lost as to what to tell the boy…

"It's just a story." Zen said, smiling, trying to cheer him up.

"Yeah, it's not like it really happened." Crow said reassuringly, giving Seto an encouraging grin, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Seto was quiet for a moment, before he shook his head.

"R-Right, just a story. Sorry." He said, smiling apologetically at them both, rubbing his aching head "What were you saying, Zen?"

"Well, like I said, their kingdom was left uninhabited entirely, and the person responsible apparently left, leaving a map for the kingdom on the moon to come and find and reclaim all the stuff that was left behind, but they never came to claim it, and the map was never found."

"We already knew that." Crow replied irritably, his arm still protectively around Seto's shoulders. Zen looked at the pair of them for a moment, before shaking his head slightly.

"I'm aware of that," he answered with a small roll of his eyes "Now what I learned-"

Zen was cut off, this time by a loud commotion on the bottom floor. All three turned and, curious, walked over the railing and looked down to the first floor where the main hall was, and where a large crowd had gathered. There was a person at the center hidden by either a hat or a veil, and they were surrounded by what looked a lot like guards.

"What's up with them?" Crow muttered.

"I'm more or less sure that's the Princess in the middle of that commotion." Zen mused thoughtfully, leaning slightly on the rail.

"Princess?" Seto asked.

"Well, that's who it looks like, especially with that many guards." The silver haired boy replied with a shrug, not particularly caring, walking back over to the table.

"Wonder what someone like her is doing here?" Crow asked, though he really didn't care a lot as they weren't here to do any raiding (much of that had stopped since Seto and Ren had come aboard, Crow wouldn't answer as to why), and followed Zen back to the table to continue where they left off.

After a moment, Seto as well turned to go back to the table when someone on the other side of the second floor caught his attention, leaning over the banister and watching the scene below. Really, he was sort of hard to miss, especially with that hair.

What was Mar doing over there?

End Chapter

* * *

I'M ALIVE! Wooh, yes, shocking I realize. On the bright side, this wasn't a three month wait, right? Right? Probably not right, oh well. On the actual bright side, you guys are going to love this chapter (I hope)! There's action! Romance! Things that shall be revealed about the treasure that is the main part of the story! Possibly things about Seto's past! And Crow/Seto fan service! But of course, you guys don't care about that last one, right? ;D

Anyways, I hope you guys don't mind what I did with the merchant…if you hadn't guessed already, that is who Mar Chant is. This chapter didn't have a ton going on, though, mainly introducing Mar. Next chapter is where things kick off, and we get into the important parts of this arc~ Actually, I don't like how this one turned out, but I cant think of an immediately good way to fix it, so annoying -.-

Working on the next chapter already, so hopefully I can get most of it done this weekend with little procrastination, and hopefully without my cat attacking me like she's doing now .

ANYWAYS~ Reviews aren't necessary, but they are loved. A review from you guys has the ability to make my day, and give me hints on what I'm doing terribly wrong ;P

**Until next chapter!**

-Sleepy ;D


	17. The Map in the Sky

"Crow…" Zen said, for about the third time trying to re-catch his captain's attention. His eyes was twitching slightly again. "Please pay attention to what I'm saying or leave so I can go on with my research."

The dark haired pirate swung his head around, giving his crew member a dirty look. "I am paying attention." He stated, crossing his arms with an annoyed look on his face. Zen sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"If you were paying attention," the silver haired male gave him a look "Repeat what I just told you."

Crow was silent for a good moment or two, the sort of silence like when a teacher asks a student who was sleeping in class a question about what they slept through. Finally, Crow just gave an annoyed sounding grumble that Zen didn't catch and rolled his eyes, turning his head back to where he had been looking, and the precise reason he hadn't been paying attention to what Zen had been saying. That reason, though he would really rather not admit to it, had to do with a certain maroon haired boy and a really, really weird guy who looked like he had a chicken living on his head.

Yes, Seto, for the past ten minutes or so, had been away from the general area of the table where he and Zen were; and on the other side of the banister circle talking to that weird merchant from earlier, Mar, for reasons Crow did not know, and he was feeling…annoyed, very annoyed.

"You know," Zen said behind him "Jealousy is bad for your health." Crow spun his head back, a glare _DEAD SET_ at his crew member, who just had a simple, but very off putting, knowing smile on his face. Actually, the pirate wasn't sure if it was a smile or smirk to be honest, but still. Off putting. Zen wasn't one for smiles, which was more Toyo's forte.

"What did you just say?" Zen rolled his eyes slightly in reply, leaning over in his chair to look where Crow was. Seto and the merchant were quite easily visible, they seemed to be speaking about something.

"You don't like him talking with that guy," Zen explained, shaking his head even though he had a small smile on his face "You should just tell him how you feel, it'll make things simpler."

"The heck are you talking about?" Crow asked, crossing his arms, his glare only lightening to a suspicious narrow look. Zen gave him a look.

"You ARE aware we're all not as unobservant as Seto, right?" Zen asked, leaning back in his chair, mimicking Crow's crossed arm look with a raised eyebrow. He shook his head slightly, slightly amazed. "It's not hard to tell that you like him, it's actually pretty obvious."

Crow absolutely, did NOT blush "E-Excuses me!" The glare was back "Don't go spouting that sort of thing in public, you have no idea what you're talking about anyways!" He shot back defensively. His silver haired friend simply rose a curious eye brow to the boy captain.

"Really now…" He asked sardonically, this time an obviously amused, knowing smirk coming to his face "You're saying that I, someone who pretty much grew up with you and know you and how you react to things, have no idea what I'm talking about?" He asked. "When you want something, you can't stop thinking about it, and you don't like letting it out of your sight, or people touching it." He stated, motioning to where Seto and Mar stood in the library, the former laughing at something the latter said. "Am I not right?"

There was another moment of dead silence, aside from the crowd down stairs, until Zen skillfully dodged a rather large looking book that had been aimed straight for his head, and came back up with a pleasant looking smile directed at his captain.

"Shut up," Crow said shortly, walking back over to nearby where Zen was sitting and looking over his shoulder "Now, what were you saying about the map?"

Zen sighed in a slightly dramatic manner, shaking his head. "As I was saying," He re-started "What I found out that was the map to the kingdom is no ordinary map."

"You're being vague, as usual." Crow said, rolling his eyes slightly "What do you mean it's not ordinary?"

"As in, it's not your typical run of the mill paper map or anything." Zen explained, crossing his arms with a slightly perplexed look "If what these books are telling me is correct, the map is hidden in the sky."

* * *

Seto frowned thoughtfully, looking over the railing at the girl down there. He couldn't see her face very well at all, she was wearing a crown with a veil down both sides, and all he could see for sure was that she had long, dirty blonde hair that was straight down her back. Her dress was a more creamy shade of white than her veil, with little pink designs embroidered on the sleeves. Her guards all looked about the same, they were wearing what looked like nobleman suits, black and white and swords hanging at the ready on their sides.

"So, you used be friends with her?" Seto asked Mar curiously, who was also watching the princess. He nodded in reply, smiling.

"I used to work in her home, you see," He explained, smiling fondly at what Seto had to assume was the memory of back then "We were very close back then, I was her personal servant. We were almost always together."

"What happened?" Seto asked, frowning again. Mar sighed.

"My father got into a fight with the king, and we ended up moving, first just traveling merchants before we settled down in Garnet." He explained with a sad look "She was very sad when she found out and tried to come with, her hand maidens ended up holding her back when we were leaving. It was…heart breaking, I hated seeing her sad. She was always the best when she was smiling…" There was a moment of silence between the two of them, before the merchant sighed quietly again "But that was Lord knows how many years ago, we were both pretty young back then, I doubt she remembers me much anymore." Mar said finally with a shrug, shaking his head before flashing a slightly sad smile at the maroon haired boy.

"You act like nothing's wrong." Seto said, putting his hands on his hips in an authoritative manner that caught the chicken colored male off guard. Seto was right, of course. Being able to tell when people were lying was one of the only talents he knew he had, it was one he had mastered and one he knew how to use to his advantage. Mar acted like he was fine, but his flames told an entirely different story on the white side of Seto's vision.

Primarily, it was the same shade as his hair almost, a little bit darker, and with an apple type shade of green on the outside outline. Mar was a cheery, outgoing person, so the colors more or less made sense. But the flame, for such an outgoing person, was abnormally small, and was flecked around with very deep, sad looking shades of blue. The blue flecks were, if Seto was assuming correctly, the reason the flame was so small.

The stern look on Seto's face softened to a more sympathetic look "You miss her more than you're really telling me." This was not a question, this was a statement. Caught off guard, Mar was quiet for a moment, before he gave Seto a slightly sheepish smile, like he was caught.

"Am I that obvious?" He asked, giving a mock sigh, sagging his shoulders dramatically. Seto laughed.

"No, I'm just really good at this type of thing," He said with a bit of a grin, before realizing with a small shock that, aside from a few people on the crew, Mar was the first person aside from Crow who he had been able to laugh with. A moment passed, and he found himself smiling fondly, and Seto turned his head to look across the banister where Zen and Crow were talking, looking over maps.

It was weird, over the short amount of time that they'd been together how close he and Crow had become. Thinking back, he hadn't been as happy as he was now before he joined Crow and the crew on the Black Wing's ship, as dangerous as it was, he knew Crow would protect him. It gave him a weird, warm fuzzy feeling in his chest, like the secret good night kisses crow would give him sometimes, or a lot when he'd hurt his leg.

Crow really **was** his best friend, wasn't he?

"Would you call me an idiot if I told you I love her?" Mar asked seriously, catching Seto slightly off guard in his musings and pulling him back to the conversation.

"W-Well no, of course not," The boy answered with a slight frown "That would be rude…"

Mar laughed good heartedly "Well, at least you're honest." He said with a small grin "I want to tell her, or at the very least see if she remembers me…but her guards won't even let me get close." He said, sighing.

"Have you tried sending her something like a letter?" Seto asked, causing the other male to blush slightly.

"I…never know what to write." He replied, running a hand through his hair nervously, leaning over the banister to look down at the girl who seemed to have finally moved through the crowd and had settled down at a table with a scarily large book. Seto could kind of see her face now, or at least her eyes. They were a light shade of blue, not sky blue…they were sort of corn flower blue. Idly, he was sure he'd seen a baby crib with that color somewhere…did everyone in Merchant City have oddly colored eyes?

"And even if I tried writing," Mar continued "My letter may not get through, letters get stolen in the postal deliveries all the time because some people put valuables in them." Mar explained "The only for sure way she'd get it is if it was hand delivered or something. Which, like I just told you, is basically impossible."

Seto frowned thoughtfully, scratching his head. He'd never been good at problem solving, not without other people helping him out to some degree.

"Why don't you just deliver it to where she lives?" Mar looked like him like he'd just said that the ocean was pink.

"You're not serious, are you?" The very blank look on Seto's face answered his question, and Mar remembered that Seto was not a Merchant City native, and was in fact, very serious "Have you seen the really big plaza in the middle of the city?" He asked. Seto nodded.

"I haven't been there yet, I saw it coming in though." He answered, tilting his head in a slightly confused manner.

"It's not entirely a shopping plaza, as much as you would expect it to be." Mar explained, gesturing slightly in the direction the entrance to the library was where it connected to the plaza "The majority of the plaza, aside from a small part in the front that connects to the library, is entirely the King's palace. All the doors and entrances that lead to any other part of the building are guarded pretty heavily because all the stuff that the king buys is stored here, and if you get too close the guards have the right to attack you."

Seto blinked, slightly surprised at this revelation. It was hard to believe a place like that was where a King lived! It looked sort of…small, compared to stories Seto had read, where kings ruled in big, stone castles that towered over the citizens. Admittedly, it was very big size wise, but height wise it was only a little bit larger than the library itself, and that was with the glass dome roof adding to it, and he wasn't sure if there was anything up there anyways for it to really be able to count towards the height.

Seto frowned, humming thoughtfully "Have you tried getting past the guards?" He asked.

Mar gave him a bit of a blank look "No, I rather value my life."

"Well, then how do you know that you can't?" Seto asked, giving him an inquisitive look "I bet it can't be that hard."

"I hope you're not a regular gambler." Mar answered, running a hand through his hair, shaking his head.

"No, but I'm pretty sure me and Crow could get past them, I'd have to ask though." Seto said, pointing over to where the pirate captain was, making Mar notice them for the first time since they'd been speaking. A moment passed, and Mar shook his head again.

They both looked down as loud chatter erupted from downstairs again. It seemed the princess was leaving, entourage and all tailing as they pushed through the crowd. The princess didn't even look around, staring apparently straight ahead as they walked and leaving her guards to keep an eye on the area around them. Looking out a nearby window, Seto more or less understood why; it seemed as though the sun had finally set and it was dark outside now. He wondered slightly if, as a princess, she had a curfew or something.

"So you're saying if I write a letter, you and your friend will try to deliver it for me?" Mar asked suddenly, staring straight at the maroon haired boy, the look catching Seto a bit off guard. Why did he seem…desperate, suddenly? Desperate that Seto would say yes?

Seto nodded, hesitantly, but it was enough for the chicken haired man to relax a bit "If you have the letter written tomorrow, I'm sure Crow will say yes if I ask." Seto replied, smiling.

"Well then, do we have a deal, valued customer?" Mar asked, making Seto laugh.

"You're acting weird again, do you only do that for the shop?" He asked, giggling slightly. The merchant flailed his arms, as if in surprise.

"What? Why, of course not!" He replied loudly, shaking his head "Well maybe~" He added, a bright grin adorning his face as he spun on his heel dramatically, before setting of determinedly for the stairs, and while his flames did not match his attitude, Seto didn't comment on it.

"The hour is late! I shall meet you again tomorrow, valued customer~!" He called, waving "Till we meet again!"

* * *

"So what you're saying," Crow started, pausing to wave Seto over as the maroon haired boy re-approached the table, glad that he was finally back from talking to that weird merchant "Is that technically, it's impossible for us to get to the city unless we find someone who can see the map, right?"

Zen nodded, leaning back in his chair "Basically, the odds are basically zero though." He answered "The treasure itself may not even exist, so it's highly doubtful, realistically, that someone able to see the map exists either. If these books are right, only someone from the Moon Tribe would be able to see the map."

"Why only them?" Seto asked, trying to catch up in the conversation to what they were talking about.

"The map is hidden in the sky," Zen elaborated "The books say it's hidden in the stars, and that only someone from the Moon Tribe would be able to see it."

There was a brief moment where Seto and Crow exchanged looks, Crow's curious, and Seto's highly uncertain. Zen stared at them for a moment, before he was taken in by the slight confusion and curiosity.

Crow broke away from the mini staring contest first, and turned to look Zen. "Come here for a second." He said, grabbing Seto's hand and pulling him towards the stairs, Zen followed behind, wondering what exactly was going on. The crowd on the first floor had dispersed since the princess had left the library, and the fact that it was getting dark and most people had the sense to get home before the thieves and muggers started coming out. So getting outside of the library wasn't very hard, the air was a bit cooler there and not near as stuffy. Above them, the sky only had a few drifting clouds that sky was easily visible behind. A bright, crescent moon shined above them.

"What did you want to show me?" Zen asked, frowning as Seto seemed incredibly apprehensive about what was going on, and had tensed up considerably. Wordlessly, Crow's ungloved hand let go of Seto's and he grabbed Zen's, bringing it over. Crow wanted to them to hold hands? Why? Frowning, and slightly worried now, he looked to Seto for confirmation that this was fine. It was well known around the ship and the crew that the only one that Seto let touch him casually was Crow, however the younger boy was avoiding his gaze, almost afraid to look him in the eye, and he didn't get an answer to his silent question.

Hesitantly, Zen took a hold of Seto's hand, and gasped in shock as he was overwhelmed by…something, and he felt Seto flinch in his grasp, his grip tighten in pain. And that's when he saw that everything in his left eye was drastically not the same, all encased impossibly in white while what could only be described as fires roamed about the city. Zen, in a single word, was awestruck.

Crow smacked him in the back of the head with an annoyed look on his face, bringing him back to his senses. "I'm not doing this so you can sight see." He snapped, glaring at Zen slightly while his look softened as he gave Seto a worried look. In Zen's left eye, his captain looked entirely normal. However his right eye saw him encased in what could only be a pillar of midnight blue fire, the shade that shows up when the sun starts going on that's still light. There were a few shades of purple running through it, and a few bright patches of green that looked out of place. Idly, Zen couldn't help but wonder if Crow was jealous again. As the phrase went, some people could get green with jealousy.

"What am I supposed to be looking for?" Zen asked, frowning as he looked around. Crow rolled his eyes.

"Up, genius, where else?" Zen rolled his eyes at Crow's attitude, but did as he was instructed "Now I know the view is pretty, but look specifically for stars that have a silvery color, like the moon." Zen squinted, trying to get his vision aligned and trying to get used to the different sights in his eyes. Finally, after a moment, he spotted it in the midst of a dozen other stars, what seemed to be a line of silver colored stars in particular in a line.

"I see it." Zen answered.

"Good," Crow said, forcefully disconnecting the silver haired male's hand and Seto's, leaving Zen to the slight after shock while he checked to make sure Seto was fine. Zen was annoyed, but he sort of expected it.

After a few seconds of Crow worrying, he finally turned back to Zen looking completely serious "First off, you have to swear to keep this a secret until I tell you otherwise."

Zen frowned "What about Toyo?" He asked, narrowing his eyes "And does Ren know about this?"

"We're…working on a way to tell them." Seto answered quietly, shuffling his feet nervously, still not meeting his eyes.

"What do you think the chances are that those stars are the map we're looking for?" Crow continued on, bringing the conversation back around.

Zen ignored him, watching Seto as he stood there, seeming like he wanted to run "How long have you been able to do that? The thing with the fires and stuff, is that what you see always?"

"Well, um…yeah, I've always been able to do that," Seto replied hesitantly, shuffling again "I n-never really knew why…It's only in my l-left eye, though. My right eye sees things normal."

"Zen, I asked you a question." Crow said, a bit more forcefully. Again, he was ignored.

"So was that thing back in Ribon with the blue flames your doing?" This time, Seto visibly flinched, having not been aware Zen had been conscious during whatever that had been, and that was all the answer Zen really needed. Zen sighed "Seto, look at me." No response, at all "Seto…" This time with a bit more authority. Seto looked up, having a slightly crest fallen look about him, mixed with fear.

The silver haired male stared at him for a moment, silently, before he gave a small, reassuring grin and ruffled his hair "That was pretty awesome, you know," He said, making Seto blink at him in surprise "You saved us all, I can't even begin to thank you enough."

"I-I can't really control it yet, that t-time it just sort of happened on accident…" Seto stuttered out, blushing slightly from the praise. He looked at Zen meekly "You're not…afraid, or anything?" He asked.

"Afraid? Of what?" He asked, smiling as he shook his head "Sure, you can spawn dangerous looking blue flames and see weird colored fires, and may or may not be part of a race that shouldn't exist outside of story books," The silver haired teen shrugged "You're still Seto, and you're still about the most harmless person I know." Seto, after a moment, smiled at him brightly.

"Zen…"

"Ahem!" Both turned, looking back to a rather peeved looking Crow. "Silver line of stars, map. Yes or no?" He asked pointedly. Zen rolled his eyes, wondering if Crow was jealous or just being impatient.

"There's a definite maybe there." Zen answered thoughtfully "Makes sense, I'll read more up on it tomorrow though." He stated, frowning as he saw a rather suspicious looking shadow pass out of the corner of his eye.

"Let's head back to the ship for the night."

* * *

"See? Told you Zen would understand." Crow said, standing at his dresser as he pulled out a night shirt. They'd made it back to the ship safely, and everyone had basically either turned in for the night or were out drinking by now, since there wasn't much else to do. He and Seto had opted for bed, which was where Seto was sitting in one of Crow's other borrowed night shirts that was baggy on his small frame.

"I'm glad he did," Seto answered, he hadn't stopped smiling yet "I was really worried." Walking over, holding the shirt in his hands, he poked Seto in the forehead.

"You worry too much over these kinds of things." He stated, before turning around and beginning to undress. Seto blushed, maneuvering on the bed so that his back was turned, and idly wondering why he was blushing because his best friend was getting changed.

"Besides," Crow's voice came from behind him, followed by a pair of arms draped over his shoulders and Crow's head sitting atop his "Now we kind of know about your past and stuff, aren't you happy about that?" Seto, still blushing, nodded.

"Y-Yeah, but I'm still really confused…" Above him, he heard Crow sigh as he removed himself from Seto's person and walked to the other side of the bed, turning off the lamp as he sat down on his side. Seto swung his legs onto the bed and covered up with the blanket, and Crow blew out his lantern, leaving only the moon coming through the windows as light.

"Hey, Crow?"

"Yeah?"

"What was it like for you, growing up?"

"…"

"Crow?"

"I'll tell you another time, get some sleep Seto."

"Ok, night Crow." Seto said, frowning in the dark, curling up into the pillow on his side. Rolling over, Crow leaned over slightly and gave Seto a small kiss on the forehead, both of them ignoring the initial shock that came with the contact.

"Sleep well, Seto."

End Chapter

* * *

You know…it's really sad, I wrote this in a few hours. This is what happens when I'm not lazy, I guess. I'm going to end up spoiling you guys with this since it didn't take a month xD

Actually, I probably would have finished it a bit sooner if it wasn't for the fact that I got distracted watching Vocaloids fight with light sabers -w-

ANYWAYS! Thoughts? Personally, I like how this chapter came out but…who knows, you guys might not, and that's what's more important here. It's supposed to be a mixture of mystery and fluffiness, and Crow being…well…not sure what to call him, I know there's probably a word for it somewhere~

Anyways, that's it for this one, and I hoped you guys liked it. I'll start work on the next chapter probably tomorrow at some point maybe. Until then, however! I need to go to sleep .

So, in closing, hope you guys enjoyed it. To those of you who tend to review, I look forward to reading them, because some of you quite seriously make my day when you send them~

And with that!

This chapter is finished.

Until next time!

~Sleepy ;D


	18. Good morning, Crow

Giggling could be heard outside of the captain's quarter's that morning. It was the silver haired first mate who was finally up and around, who was looking in on her friends sleeping.

Ren couldn't help it.

When she'd opened the door to wake them up originally, to surprise them, she'd seen the two of them curled up on the bed, Crow's leg thrown haphazardly over both of Seto's, the blankets a mess between the two of them, Seto curled up all close to the dark haired captain...it was almost as if they were posing just to mess with her!

"What on earth are you doing?" Ren jumped, turning around to see a pair of familiar faces. Zen was giving her a slightly dirty look, and Toyo was wearing a more curious one. Both were staring at her with rather expectant expressions regardless.

"Noth-ing..." She replied innocently, flashing a nervous looking smile at both boys. They were quiet for a moment "Not buying it?"

"Not a bit." Toyo answered cheerfully, leaning easily over Ren to look into the room. Zen, likewise, pushed her politely (as politely as it is possible to push someone) out of the way a bit and stood next to her, looking in. As was becoming common when it came to the pirate captain and his best friend, there were a few moments of silence as the two males took in the scene through the gap in the door.

"So that's what you were giggling about..." Toyo mused aloud finally, his tone rather obviously reflecting this new revelation.

"I knew it." Zen commented, rolling his eyes, turning to give Ren a look. She glared at them both.

"What? They look adorable! Crow can even be cute when he's not running his mouth."

"She has a bit of a point, you know..." Toyo agreed quietly, earning a sharp look from his silver haired best friend "What?"

"That's our captain you're calling cute, you know." Toyo flicked him in the back of the head.

"Not what I meant," He shot back, rolling his eyes "She has a point that they do look kind of cute together like that. Crow looks...I dunno, at peace."

"He's asleep." Zen dead panned.

"Not that kind of peace-"Something, more than likely off the bed side table, was thrown at the door with a rather hard thud, and made all three gossiping crew members jump backwards. All three, in almost perfect unison, after a brief moment took a step back forwards and looked through the door. They were met with the same basic sight, Seto and Crow on the bed...but their eyes were met by another pair on the bed almost blocked by a crinkle in the blanket that were cat eye yellow, and glaring at them very darkly.

"I think that's our cue to go." Toyo whispered carefully, closing the door slowly and quietly. Zen sighed and, with a small shake of his head, started walking off back towards the dining area. Toyo started following but stopped for a brief second to turn to look at Ren, who was glaring at the door. If the red head didn't know any better, he'd have said that her and Crow were having a staring contest through the door. Actually, thinking about it, he wondered if that's exactly what they were doing. He shook his head, off that train of thought.

"You coming?" He asked. Ren turned to look at him, then back to the door, and then nodded.

"Yeah, I'm coming." She answered, her glare at the door finally letting up into a frown before she turned and walked after her two male friends, in need of food.

Meanwhile, back in the room now guarded by closed doors, Crow rolled his eyes slightly before closing them. He knew he had to get up soon, as did Seto. Cracking an eye open, he looked at the maroon haired boy asleep close to him. His hair was a mess and his shirt was crumpled slightly, but he looked..._adorable_. Crow hated to call him that, but it was the only word he could find that would fit. Crow rolled his open eye slightly before closing it again, feeling slightly annoyed with himself.

Morning could wait.

* * *

"You told him we would do WHAT?" It was still morning. The dining hall was filled with the smell of good food that wafted not only from the kitchen, but the plates that were brought from. The crew was spread out about the tables in the usual fashion that they were in the morning, some still rather obviously not awake and some chugging bitter tasting coffee, while a few took out hidden pouches with sugar to add to their own cups. Some people were falling asleep with food in their open mouths, and others yet still were keeping people awake. It was a normal morning for the Black Wing crew.

That is why everyone, half asleep or not, were caught off guard by the loud voice of their captain, and looked over to see him shaking his head rather exasperated while across from him, Seto sat, looking like a child that had just been scolded.

Crow was caught on the line between being angry, and being slightly proud of his best friend. On the one hand, Seto had told his new friend (that alone still set him off...) that he and Crow would be willing to break into the King's palace. Something very, VERY **dangerous** and something Crow had not planned to do while stopped here. To deliver a love letter, of all things. Crow pinched the bridge of his nose.

On the other hand, he couldn't help but feel begrudgingly proud that Seto, of all people, had agreed to break into the King's palace. Seto seemed like the type who wasn't capable of committing crimes, Crow just seriously couldn't picture it unless there was a very good reason; even then it was still difficult.

Looking up, the pirate captain took in the face before him, and found guilt well in his chest. He glared slightly at Seto, before his sighed.

"Wipe that look off your face, would you?" He asked sharply, not meaning for it to come off like that. Seto flinched. Crow groaned. "Sorry, I didn't mean that." He said quickly, slightly clumsily as he reached over to brush a piece of hair out of his face. Seto was avoiding eye contact, no matter how hard Crow tried to look him in the eye. The guilty feeling panged rather hardly in his chest. Seto was upset with him.

"Hey, we'll go with!" Both boys blinked, and Seto felt a sudden weight on his shoulders as Toyo and Zen leaned over him. They both flashed their captain a smile before turning back to the maroon haired boy "Sorry, kind of hard to not overhear." Toyo continued with a sheepish grin. "You're gonna try and sneak into the King's place to deliver some guy's love letter, right?"

Zen shot Crow a small, almost completely miss-able look "I don't really like it, if the guy isn't willing to something like break into the castle for this girl then he shouldn't even be sending her the letter anyways."

"Why not?" Seto asked, still looking slightly upset, but still altogether curious. Crow almost sighed, having a very nagging feeling where this was going.

"If he really loved her, he should be willing to do anything for her." Zen answered, crossing his arms and shaking his head slightly. "If he isn't willing to break into a palace for her, then he can't really love her as much as he says."

"That's kind of harsh, isn't it?" Toyo asked, frowning at his friend in slight confusion.

"Yeah, it's not his fault." Seto said, going defensive "I'm sure Mar really loves her, absolutely sure. And I'm going to help get them back together." A very loud sigh could be heard across the table from Crow, who was once again pinching the bridge of his nose. Looking up, he glared daggers at his silver haired crew members before standing up rather abruptly from his seat. He walked to the other side of the table, ignoring the eyes of the majority of his crew watching, and pulled Seto up from his seat. Grabbing Seto's hand, he pulled the very confused looking boy behind him towards the exit of the dining hall, missing the look of confusion that Toyo was giving them and the smirk on Zen's face as he walked back to his seat to finished breakfast.

"Crow?" Seto asked, still being partially pulled even after they exited the room and were walking the halls that, if the boy remembered correctly, lead to the general area that had all the sleeping quarters. Crow didn't answer his confused friend, who was slowly beginning to worry about what was happening, until he found that they had walked back to Crow's room. The purple clad boy kicked the door rather roughing open, and kicked it shut once Seto was in the room entirely. "Crow..." Seto probed again, and was again met with silence as he was walked over to the bed. That was when Crow finally let go of his hand and instead put both gloved hands onto Seto's shoulders.

"If we're going to do this, we're going to do it correctly. Understood?"

"Do what?" Seto asked, frowning.

"Sneak into the palace, what else?" Crow asked, on the verge of sighing again. What he did for Seto...

"R-Really?" Seto asked, caught slightly off guard.

"Yes, really." Crow answered, dropping his hands from the other as he sighed. Seto beamed at him, and caught him in a hug that Crow had quite honestly not been expecting. "H-Hey, you don't need to be that happy." He said, pushing his friend off slightly, most certainly **NOT** blushing at the bright smile that was being directed his way.

"Thank you Crow!" Seto was overjoyed, to say the very least. "I mean, I'm sure that Zen and Toyo wouldn't have let anything happen, but I do feel better that you said yes." He explained, blushing slightly.

"Geez, you're so hopeless." Crow mumbled, running a hand through his hair "Yes, I'm coming, but you have to everything I say, alright?" He asked seriously "If you screw up, we're both in trouble. We're not breaking into any old place, you know."

Seto smiled, hugging Crow again "I know, don't worry!"

Crow laughed slightly "So, not mad anymore?"

"I wasn't mad." Seto said, pouting slightly at his friend "I just really wanted you to come with, that's all."

* * *

"You guys going into town?" Seto asked curiously as he entered the top deck, Crow following next to him. When they'd arrived up top, Crow had noticed the trio standing by the ramp that went down to the dock from the ship. It was Ren who ended up replying.

"Yeah, of course!" She said, excitement showing in her voice, nearly jumping in place "This is Merchant City! I've always wanted to come here! There are things that you can only get HERE, and there's so many shops!" Seto smiled slightly, happy to see his friend back at full strength and seeming so excited.

"Well, those two are," Zen corrected, earning a look from the other silver haired person next to him "I'm going back to the library to see what else I can find o the Moon Tribe while these two," He paused, nodding his head in Ren and Toyo's direction "go sightseeing for a bit."

"We're not sightseeing," Toyo explained quickly, shooting Zen a small glare before turning back to look at Crow and Seto "It's pretty dangerous in town, you know? It'd be bad if something happened while she was shopping."

"You say that like I can't defend myself." Ren stated, sounding annoyed. She crossed her arms and gave him a dirty look.

"I-I didn't mean it like that..." He said, failing to remedy the situation.

So..." Crow started, a smirk coming slowly to his face "You're basically going on a date?" He got a pair of blushes in response, and his cat like grin formed on his face.

"It's not a date!" Ren shot back attempting, and failing because of his reflexes, to kick Crow in the shin for the comment "We're just going out shopping, quit being stupid!" Before anyone could get another word in, the silver haired girl shot another dark look at the purple clad captain before 'hmphing', grabbing Zen and Toyo by the wrists and practically dragging them off the boat.

Crow started laughing almost as soon as they were out of ear shot, leaning on Seto for support.

"You really think it's a date?" Seto asked, going through the scenario of Toyo and Ren on a date in his head.

"Yup." Crow answered, grinning as he started walking, motioning for Seto to follow.

"It doesn't sound like a date..." He replied, frowning "They're just shopping." As he caught up to Crow, the other let out a small sigh.

"Whatever you think, Seto." Crow shook his head "Come on, let's go find that stupid merchant and get this over with."

* * *

End Chapter

Yes, it's short and yes, I'm sorry. I couldn't keep going without getting into things I wanted for next chapter, so this is like...a mini-chapter leading into all of the action. I personally don't like it (as in I seriously dont like it), but it's all I can come up with at the moment -.- It just feels...really, really cheesy to me. I can't write romantic kind of scenes well, maybes that's why.

On a side note, thank the Internet Gods for Google Images! Up at the beginning, for the life of me I could not remember what color Crow's eyes were...

Anyways! I'll probably start on the next chapter tomorrow. It's not entirely started yet, but I know where I want to go with it.

ANYWAYS! Reviews and comments are welcome, and rather needed because you guys are better at pointing out what I did horribly wrong then I myself am. This was mostly a fanservice mini-chapter with minor plot important things, so opinions are REALLY important so I can at least see if I did those scenes half decently.

Anyways, till next time!

~Sleepy ;D


	19. The King's plaza

The pair walked into the relatively quiet streets, taking in only a single morning of Merchant City. Certainly, it was much quieter than it had been the evening they'd docked but it also was not entirely quiet either. There were still people milling around the streets shopping, store owners calling out in hopes of making a quick buck, and the sneaky people moving silently through the crowd making their living in a less moral way. After a moment Crow realized there was irony in what he'd just thought. A pirate calling pick pockets immoral. Crow smiled a bit wryly at it, before turning to make sure Set hadn't fallen behind. Or worse, wearing such bright clothing with giant pockets. It was like he was actively trying to call people to mug them.

Crow sighed, feeling tired and taking hold of Seto's hand when he saw a rather suspicious girl with dark hair in some weird pink overcoat staring at them. She was a bit farther down the road standing next to the pub, but the way she was dressed she was really hard to miss. Aside from the bright pink coat, she was wearing shorts and a revealing white shirt, and a white hat that seemed to be keeping her hair in place on her head. Idly, Crow found himself wondering if she was some weird type of call girl and if she was plotting to steal their money when they passed by. Crow pulled Seto closer as they passed her, noticing as she followed them with her eyes as they passed. Or, eye, technically. Her left eye was covered by hair. Crow shot the short haired girl a glare and hurried past.

"Crow..." Seto started, a little ways down the road from the suspicious girl. Crow turned, looking to his maroon haired friend who had a rather worried look on his face. Seto hadn't actually been very talkative since they got off the boat, Crow hadn't worried about it much since Seto was not much of a morning person from the amount of mornings he'd had to ask Ren for help waking the other boy up. Crow stopped walking and stepped with Seto to the side of the street, out of the incoming traffic of human beings.

"What's up?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

Seto shuffled on his feet slightly, the way he always seemed to when his left eye was seeing odd things "That girl back there, did you notice anything strange about her?"

Crow frowned, pausing in thought as he carefully leaned forwards to look back to see if the girl was even still there. She was, staring after them and not seeming to have moved at all. The pair were closer to her now, and Crow could see much easier that the weird shirt he thought she was wearing was actually not much of a shirt at all. Her chest was covered in bandages. Crow stepped back and looked at Seto with a shrug.

"She looks strange in general walking around like that," He replied, crossing his arms and leaning against a nearby wall. "I assume that isn't what you're seeing?" Seto replied with a shake of his head. No. "Well, what are YOU seeing?" Crow asked, sounding almost impatient. Apparently, Seto noticed because he only replied with another shake of his head and a sheepish smile.

"I-It's nothing, I'm just tired still." Seto said quickly, dismissing the subject of the odd girl for the moment "We should get going, Mar is probably wondering where we're at."

"I can't believe I agreed to this..." Crow grumbled, setting back out into the crowd. Seto beamed at him from his spot beside the pirate captain.

"I'm glad you did." He said, still smiling even as Crow turned away with a huff. Most certainly, most certainly Crow was NOT blushing.

* * *

After a bit of walking, and a slightly awkward silence more or less on Crow's part, the two arrived at the small shop of odd things, and were slightly surprised as to what they saw.

The owner was there, which was not all that surprising. However, the shelves and crates were all empty as if Mar was not open for business and he was pacing in front of his stall back and forth with an anxious look on his face, warding off any customers that may have wanted to buy anything if he had been opened. Clutched in his hand was a piece of paper that looked like it was just barely beyond the point of not being crumpled.

"Excuse me for pointing out the obvious," Crow started in a sarcastic drawl, catching the merchant's attention and causing him to stop pacing and look at them "But I doubt a princess is going to take a crumpled up letter." Mar sent him a slightly dark look, before turning to give Seto a smile. Crow nearly rolled his eyes as his friend walked over and he trailed behind.

"You wrote it, I'm so glad!" Seto said, and Mar grinned in return holding up the somehow not crumpled letter, folded neatly down the middle.

"Yeah, it took about half the night..." The chicken haired said with a laugh, running a hand through his hair. "I was worried you two were going to go back on your word to deliver this for me."

"Believe me, it was tempting." Crow dead panned, earning him another dark look from the merchant and a frown from Seto. He was more or less sure Seto was fully aware that Crow hadn't wanted to come from the start of this, he was supposed to be able to tell how people felt, couldn't he tell that Crow thought this was a bad idea? Actually...Crow frowned, toning out Seto and Mar as the conversation continued. How much could Seto tell he felt, just by looking at him and seeing things with that weird white vision of his? He knew his friend could tell when people were angry, sad, if they were planning to do something bad or if they were lying about something, but surely it extended beyond that?

Crow grumbled under his breath, causing Seto to glance over at him mid sentence and frown as Mar continued speaking. Crow had been acting strangely for awhile today, ever since he and Zen had talked this morning. Honestly, he felt sort of guilty for dragging his friend along on this...he hadn't asked before agreeing to do it, but Crow had said yes and come with even though it was obvious he really didn't want to. Was he taking advantage of Crow's kindness? Crow didn't say no to him, almost ever, not since they'd known each other. Whenever Seto asked something of the pirate captain a weird shade of red always showed up in his fire. Not the same color of red as when someone was angry, it wasn't one Seto really knew the meaning of, but it always made his stomach flip flop in a weird way.

"Hey, would ONE of you at least pay attention?" Both boys blinked in almost unison, looked at each other and then looked over at a rather miffed looking Mar. "You know that spacing out while breaking in there could get you killed, right?" The merchant asked.

"Then why don't you do it?" Crow snapped back "It's your letter, why don't you deliver it to your girlfriend yourself?"

Mar blushed "S-She's not my girlfriend!" Crow raised an eyebrow at the merchant smirking, Seto tried to hide a small giggle that escaped his lips. Mar flushed a deeper shade of red and shoved the letter at the maroon haired boy, crossing his arms and trying to get back his composure somewhat. "A-Anyways, friends! I must be off! There are things all around the city waiting to be found be me, and they are not going to wait for me forever!" Mar gave them a quick, and slightly clumsy, bow "Until we meet again!" The merchant took off running, leaving the two boys with slightly stunned looks in a cloud of dust.

Seto sneezed, rubbing the dirt out of his eyes as he watched the merchant slowly vanish into the distance "He started talking to us like a merchant again." Seto said frowning, dusting the dirt off of his coat that had flown up. Crow was grumbling incredibly annoyed under his breath, looking down at himself and trying to get off as much of the dust and dirt as possible.

"You know?" Crow stated with a slight sneer "I think I dislike him even more." Seto laughed, causing the captain to look up from his dust covered clothes in order to give the other boy a rather narrow eyed glare. "Whatever, let's just deliver that stupid letter." Crow said, taking his hat off and shaking the dust off that had settled upon it, idly watching Seto as he dug through his bag for a place to keep the letter safe.

"Oh, that's still in there" He heard Seto say, and watched the maroon haired boy pull out a small plush toy that looked somewhat familiar.

"Why exactly," He started as he put his hat back on "Do you have a stuffed chicken?" Seto blinked on him, holding up the small plush toy.

"Ren had it in the store before it got raided sitting on one of the tables." He explained, letting his friend take the small chicken to examine it "I saw it on the floor before we left; I thought I took it out of my bag though." Seto said with a slight frown.

"I guess you thought wrong." Crow replied dryly, tossing the chicken plushy back to the maroon haired boy, who caught it clumsily before shooting Crow a rather indignant look, all he got in return was a catty grin before he put the stuffed animal back safely in his bag. When he looked up, he noticed Crow watching him and couldn't help but frown, wondering what he was looking at.

"What?" He asked, his voice slightly nervous as he stood back up straight. Crow jumped slightly at the sound of his voice, having been off in his own little world staring at his friend.

"What what?" The pirate asked innocently, causing Seto to pout at him.

"What were you looking at?" Seto asked a bit more insistently "Is there something on my coat?" He asked, suddenly looking down at his coat to see if he'd missed any patches of dirt anywhere. Crow laughed.

"No, no, you're clean." He said with a grin "But there's some dirt on your face." Looking back up at him, Seto frowned, wiping at his face, trying to get something off that wasn't there in the first place. In the end, he ended up with a slight red mark on his cheek.

"Is it gone?" Seto asked, frowning, and feeling slightly self conscious under Crow's steady gaze.

Crow shook his head "No, you missed it." He replied easily, motioning Seto to come closer "Come here, I'll get it." He said with a mock sigh.

Walking over, Seto frowned, but stood still when Crow brought his gloved hand up to his face, caressing his cheek as (Seto thought) he wiped the dirt off of it. Seto felt his stomach doing flip flops, and felt his legs tense like they were about to buckle or as if they were about to take off running. A moment after Crow's hand stopped (he thought) rubbing the dirt off, his hand remained in place as Crow looked down into his eyes with a look that seemed as if his friend was a million miles away. Under Crow's eyes, Seto couldn't help but start fidgeting, and after a little while longer with Crow's hand still caressing his cheek, and the other still staring at him, he found his voice that had probably been lost when his stomach had been flip flopping.

"C-Crow…?" At the sound of his voice, the pirate blinked and his eyes moved to actually look at his friend.

"What?" He asked calmly, giving Seto a slightly confused look.

Seto felt his face heat up into a blush and coughed uncomfortably "Um, w-well…is the dirt gone?" He asked, and in a brief second realization flashed through Crow's eyes and he pulled his hand back, leaving Seto with an oddly warm spot on his cheek that was suddenly getting unpleasantly cold.

Crow coughed into his arm, pink tinting his cheeks as he regained control over himself and turned back to look at Seto, whose eyes hadn't moved from him since he'd moved his hand.

"Y-Yeah, the dirt's gone." He said quickly, looking at Seto and watching him carefully "It was only a little bit…" He continued with a slightly quieter voice, watching as a wide range of emotions passed through Seto's eyes, and wondering what exactly he might have just done. Mentally cursing, Crow grinned, even though it came off as a slightly more off version of his normal one "Let's get going to the plaza." He suggested, holding his hand to the maroon haired boy. Seto blinked seeing it, and shook his head as if trying to clear it before taking the pirate captain's hand.

"Yeah, w-we should get going." He agreed with a shaky nod "Do you remember the way?"

Crow's grin became somewhat more natural "Of course!" He said, pulling Seto in the direction they needed to go, starting to run with Seto trying to keep up behind him "To the plaza, tally ho!"

Behind him, he heard Seto start laughing, and breathed a sigh of relief. Things were back to normal between them for now it seemed.

Or at least, the purple clad pirate hoped so.

* * *

Arriving at the gates to the plaza was much the same as when they had come through them the day before when they had been rushing to meet Zen at the connected library, slightly less crowded though as Seto remembered it. Walking inside after running almost the entire time there, he and Crow stopped to catch their breaths, and Seto's mind started to wander off as he stared at the inside of the plaza, which reminded him very much of the streets outside, except instead of the buildings enclosing all of the shops they were inside a circular room which had arches extending into a slightly more square look around the border of shops. It was also WAY more crowded.

Seto breathed in deeply, casting a look over at Crow seeing him leaning against one of the arches, before quickly changing the focus of his gaze to a random pillar inside of the plaza. Earlier still lingered rather heavily in his mind, he still felt horribly confused and he couldn't stop a well of worry about what had happened from springing up in the pit of his stomach when he started to think about it. Well, technically, he still wasn't entirely sure what had happened…or why he reacted the way he had, to be honest. Why had such a simple gesture, as accidental as it probably was, left him so weak in the knees that he could have fallen into Crow's arms but at the same time wanted to make him run away as fast as he could? Warily, the maroon haired boy let his eyes wander back to where the pirate captain stood leaning in a relaxed posture against the arch, eyes closed and probably off in his own thoughts.

Seto remembered suddenly the warmth of that gloved hand on his cheek and blushed, quickly averting his gaze, his confusion swelling back up to the forefront of his mind as he reached up to touch his cheek. Crow's hand, had it always been that warm? Of course it always was, Seto reasoned with a frown. That much was really all he seemed to be certain about. He still wasn't sure exactly why he'd felt his heart pang almost painfully when Crow had removed it so quickly, or why the cold on his cheek had made him want that hand back in place, or why even Crow of all people was confusing him so badly. More than usual, because the purple clad boy generally enjoyed messing with his head on occasion. But this…Seto was sure it wasn't intentional, so what WAS it? Not knowing the answer was eating at him.

Seto sighed quietly, pinching the bridge of his nose when a voice suddenly caught him off guard "You ok?" Crow asked, frowning at him, and looking at him for a moment Seto found rather nervously that watching the pirate's flames, bits of that deep red were flickering. They had been earlier too, when Crow had been staring off into space when he was supposed to being wiping the dirt off of his face, what did the mean? "Seto?" Crow's voice said again, sounding somewhat concerned now. It was enough to bring Seto back from his thoughts, and he offered a shaky smile in reply.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He answered quickly "Just really hot, that's all. I probably s-shouldn't be running around in a coat." He said with a nervous laugh, causing Crow to raise his eyebrow skeptically at him. Thankfully, the pirate captain didn't say anything in regard to what he seemed skeptic about.

"If you're hot, take the coat off." The suggestion caught Seto off guard and he started at Crow for a second, not sure if he'd heard him entirely correctly.

"Say again?"

"I said, if you're too hot take your coat off." Crow repeated with a frown, wondering idly if it was just the heat that was getting to the boy "You'll cool off for one, and for two you'll be a lot easier to miss while we're avoiding guards then if you're running around in something as bright as that." He explained slightly quieter, indicating the coat. "It'll be better in the long run if you take it off now."

The words took another second to kick in before Seto actually heard what was being said, and fervently shook his head in refusal to the suggestion "N-No way! I can't d-do that!" He argued, his earlier blush returning in full force as he crossed his arms, effectively saying that he was not taking the article of clothing off.

Crow looked at him with a look of mixed curiosity and confusion. "Why not?" He asked, putting his hands on his hips as he leaned closer to examine Seto's red face, searching for an answer.

The proximity made Seto's blush darken and he quickly looked away from the piercing look the cat eyed boy was giving him. "B-Because." Was the short reply.

For a good minute, Crow continued to stare at Seto with a searching gaze that made Seto shuffle uncomfortably. After that minute, Crow's trademark catty grin slowly formed on his face as if realization of something profound had just dawned on him.

"You're not wearing a shirt under your coat, are you Seto?" He got a quiet sort of mumble in reply as the boy in front of him tried to retreat into the coat of question, which only made the pirate's grin grow in size "I'm going to take that as a yes." Crow said smugly, reaching and grabbing Seto's hand effectively pulling it and the arm it was attached to out of their crossed position, catching Seto off guard as he suddenly looked rather surprised at the purple clad boy. With a slight smirk, the pirate began leading his friend towards the shopping stalls.

"C-Crow, where are we going?"

The other boy stopped walking and turned to look at him with a rather amused look on his face. "Where else?" He asked, gesturing ahead of the two of them to all the stalls inside the room "We're going to buy you a shirt."

* * *

It took a lot of looking around, and a lot of convincing on Crow's end until a shirt was finally decided on. It was rather simple, for all the trouble it took Crow to get Seto to choose it. It was short sleeved and a dark shade of blue that reminded Crow of the ocean during a bad storm. The collar was held together by a brown button, leaving a small tear drop shaped hole right beneath where the button clasped. Quite honestly, Crow worried somewhat that Seto had chosen a shirt more suited for a girl, but kept this thought to himself. They left the stall and left the shop owner who was waving rather pleasantly after them to find a place where the maroon haired boy could change in peace.

After a bit of searching they found a small corner out of sight outside the ring of stalls, where Crow was forced to turn around and block any accidental gazes that happened over this way. Which, Crow rationed with a smirk as he heard the shuffling of cloth behind him, he could do just as well if he was facing Seto. He kept that thought to himself as well, entertaining the memory of Seto's face when he'd asked the pirate to turn around instead.

"You can turn around now." Seto's voice said hesitantly behind him. Turning, Crow stared for a moment before he started to snicker uncontrollably under his breath at the sight before him.

Seto glared at his friend slightly, crossing his arms self consciously again "What are you laughing at?"

Crow laughed out loud at the question and looked back at his perplexed and slightly indignant friend, wiping the mirth out of one of his eyes "You look like a girl."

That was a very sound observation. Aside from some of the already effeminate qualities Seto had, the shirt was baggy on the skinny boy, especially towards the front where the shirt seemed the most wrinkled. The short sleeves were longer then they probably should have been, stopping a little above Seto's elbows making the shirt seem almost like a blouse. And, not that Crow noticed of course, because he hadn't been looking, through the tear shaped hole below the collar he could see the hollow of the maroon haired boy's neck. Not that he was looking, of course.

"S-Shut up!" Seto shot back, grumbling under his breath when his friend started to snicker again. Seto opened his bag and stuffed the brightly colored coat in there. "Stupid Crow…" He muttered, fighting down a blush that was threatening to come onto his cheeks for…actually, Seto was starting to lose count, was it fifth time that day? Stupid Crow.

A hand landed softly on his head, ruffling his hair affectionately "Sorry, sorry." Crow started, smiling sheepishly "Just stating the facts." He said teasingly.

"Yeah, yeah…" Seto mumbled, ignoring the butterflies that had seemingly taken up residence inside of his belly until Crow removed his hand, and quickly took Seto's hand pushing them farther into the corner with his friend somewhat hovering over him. The shock made Seto gasp in surprise, and looked up perplexed at his friend who was watching out of the corner of his eyes intently.

"Crow-"

"Hush." Somewhat shocked, Seto stopped his questioning and instead stood silently in Crow's shadow, wondering what exactly was going on. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, he heard something on the edge of his hearing. Clicking, almost, was what Seto thought it could be. As the sound got closer, he heard something _metallic_ in the noise and realized what he was hearing was footsteps, someone who was wearing shoes with a metal heel. Suddenly, Crow was pulling him out of the corner, and was rather swiftly walking towards a nearby corridor as the sounds of the plaza reached Seto's ears again, the metallic clicking of footsteps again on the edge of his hearing.

Silently, Crow and Seto moved along the edge of the ring of shops out of sight on the other side of the arches as the pirate captain led the maroon haired boy quickly into the corridor and out of sight. Then Seto found himself pressed against the wall again. And again, Crow's warm form was leaning slightly above him and Seto suddenly realized that in this hall, almost none of the sounds from the plaza were near as loud. The only thing seemingly penetrating the near quiet was their breathing, which Seto knew couldn't be as loud as it seemed to sound. But even that was rather quickly taken out as the only sound as the metallic clicking of footsteps came into Seto's range of hearing again.

Surely, if Crow was intent on hiding away from whatever was walking towards them, it couldn't be good. Panic seized the boy, and like earlier he began to fidget. Crow looked back from the small entryway they'd just come through to look at his friend, as if sensing how Seto felt at that moment, and squeezed his hand reassuringly. "Calm down." He whispered softly, but with a subtle force that almost made it sound like an order.

"Crow, what's going on? Why are we hiding?" He whispered back, worry underlining his voice.

"Just stay quiet and don't worry." Crow whispered back reassuringly, hoping that at least it was having the effect the pirate hoped it wood. Seto calmed down slightly and turned his head slightly towards the entryway and listened. The footsteps continued to get closer, and closer until it was the only noise Seto could hear beside his own heart in his ears. The footsteps finally got so loud (or at least it sounded like it) that Seto had to wonder, somewhat panicked, what exactly was coming that even Crow seemed so adament to hide from.

Finally, after what felt like forever, a tall figure that did not seem actually physically possible of all that noise passed the hall entrance. There was a somewhat large helmet on his head that reminded Seto of horse blinders, since it didn't seem possible for the man wearing t to be able to look side ways without moving his head entirely. He was wearing shoulders pads, but really aside from that he seemed to be wearing normal clothing…aside from his shoes, Seto quickly took note of. They were boots, large and made of what Seto was going to guess was either iron or steel, possibly both. For footwear, they looked pretty threatening. Not near as threatening as the sword the man was carrying on his waist, but certainly not something to be taken lightly in a fight.

Soon enough, the man passed by their hiding spot apparently not noticing them, and Seto felt Crow relax above him.

"Alright, it's safe now." Crow said, grin returning now that the apparent threat was gone. "You're cutting of circulation to my hand, though." And then there was his trade mark smirk.

"S-Sorry…" The maroon haired boy apologized, loosening the death grip he hadnt realized he had on is friend's hand as Crow lead him farther into the hall leading away from the plaza "Crow, who was that guy? Why were we hiding?"

"Well for one," Crow started, stopping against a corner "That guy was a guard." He started walking again, leading the maroon haired boy down the empty hall.

"Second," He continued "We were hiding because in case you forgot, we ARE breaking into the home of the city's ruler."

Seto blinked confused "Since when were we breaking in?" He asked.

Crow turned back, and gave a slightly lazy, but apologetic grin "Ever since we left the shop area inside the arches so you could change into that shirt."

End Chapter

* * *

**Wah**, I don't like this one either…then again, I still think it came out rather cheesey. That's probably because this is the romance-y arc and I'm no good with mixing romance and action xP

Anyways! How'd you guys like this one? I guess not a lot happened, again…but on the bright side, castle break-in? Those are always fun. Anyways, as per usual your thoughts are awesomely appreciated, even though not a ton happened (at least I don't think so).

Until we meet again!

~Sleepy ;D


	20. Meeting a Princess

"What!" Seto exclaimed loudly, his usually calm demeanor falling as Crow hurriedly put a hand over his mouth and effectively cutting off the words that may have been coming next.

"Do I have to remind you again that we're breaking into the _King's Plaza_?" The pirate whispered fervently, scanning around and listening to make sure no one had heard them and was running to investigate. He didn't see anything, and returned his look to his indignant looking friend "Can you PLEASE keep your voice down?" He stared at the maroon haired squarely until Seto nodded, after which Crow took his hand back and grinned at his victory.

Then Seto kicked him in the leg.

"Why didn't you tell me that we were starting?" Seto asked, putting his hands on his hips in a way the pained Crow rather vaguely remembered seeing somewhat often on a pair of silver haired individuals.

"I think Zen is rubbing off on you..." He groaned, somewhat annoyed as he glared at Seto. The pirate leaned against the opposite wall and crossed his arms. He was still blaming his silver haired crew mate for getting him to agree to this "I didn't exactly plan that far ahead, alright? I panicked a little when I heard the guard coming, and I figured we couldn't just hang around the shops all day. We had to start this thing at some point." He shot back.

Seto stood there silent for a few moments, trying to find something to say back to Crow, something to get his point across as to why he was upset that his friend hadn't said anything and just started things without a single word of warning. He understood Crow's thought process, but still. "You could have said something." He grumbled, lowering his eyes.

"I didn't think I needed to." Crow answered frankly "When I agreed to this, you promised that you would do what I said while we were in here."

"But you didn't say anything!" Seto shot back with an uncharacteristically upset sounding voice "You just grabbed my hand and took off, without saying a single word to explain yourself."

"Like I said, I didn't think I needed to." The pirate replied snarkily "I mean, cant you see when I'm about to do something? Weren't my 'flames' or whatever enough of a heads up?" Crow glared at the maroon haired boy across from him, somewhat dully surprised to see that Seto was glaring right back at him. Actually, he hadn't thought the normally mellow teen was capable of much else beside indignation. This was certainly a great way to find out, he mused sarcastically, by getting into a fight whilst breaking and entering. Perfect.

"It doesn't work like that." Seto's hands tightened into fists, and the maroon haired boy was trying hard not to get angry. What was Crow's problem? "I cant read your mind! You could take off running right now and I would have no idea you were going to do it until afterward. I've explained that to you!" Actually, taking off running didn't seem like a bad idea to Seto at that moment. He was hurt that Crow had said that, Seto had thought his friend, his best friend, of all people wouldn't try and use whatever his white vision was against him like that. It really hurt.

There was a tense moment of silence between the two boys.

"We should get going." Crow said, standing back straight from his spot leaning on the wall, his glare gone as he turned back to look at Seto, who had averted his eyes back downwards again "If we stand here too long, a guard on his patrol is going to find us and lock us up." He held out his hand for the other to take, and felt a pang in his heart when it was ignored and Seto started walking forward without him.

"Yeah, let's go." Seto replied quietly, crossing his arms over his new blue shirt as he waited for Crow to get ahead and lead the way. The pirate paused for a moment, before steeling himself and walking ahead, hearing Seto's soft tread behind him as they walked up a small flight of stairs and entered the main room of the off limits part of the King's Plaza they had entered. It was a large circular room colored like it had been painted in gold, and all along the walls were things the King had bought; ranging from large mermaid statues to small, colorful glass orbs while above them hung a beautiful chandelier made entirely out of a pink colored stone that cast small, lighter pink forms on the walls as the sun came though one of the very tiny oval shaped windows.

However, at the moment, neither boy seemed to particularly care how pretty the room they had entered was and walked right through it towards one of the connected halls.

The silence between the two of them was thick, the only thing really coming through it being their breathing and their foot steps in the dark hall they had entered, and the occasional, muted metallic sound of guards walking somewhere out of sight ahead of them. Crow nearly sighed, and turned his head back to double check that Seto was still following behind him and saw the currently blue clad boy, whose face was a little drawn and directed downwards, apparently following Crow's feet. Turning around, the pirate felt a pang of guilt in his heart, knowing it was his fault that Seto looked like that. He had no idea WHY, however. He still couldn't figure out why Seto had gotten so mad at him, aside from his comment on Seto's ability...Crow winced slightly remembering that, he had been out of line. But not telling Seto that he was putting the (at the time not completed) plan into action? Crow honestly did not see why it was such a big deal that his friend got so upset over it.

Stopping at a corner at a four-way, Crow inclined his head and checked the halls he couldn't see from that corner, hearing the metallic footsteps closer than before they slowly faded, apparently going the other direction. He turned around to check again on his partner in crime, and frowned.

"How you doing?" He asked, a little awkwardly, trying to at least put a crack in the silence that had fallen between the two of them.

"I'm alright." Was the somewhat short reply he received, not even receiving a glance to show that he was in fact addressing the pirate. Crow continued to look at his friend for a moment, before he sighed and turned back around.

"Well, if you get tired, tell me alright?" Crow asked, beginning to walk froward and turn left into a new hall, he turned his head to look back at the maroon haired boy "We've been walking for awhile, so I'll understand if you wanna take a break."

This time, Seto actually did look up at him to speak "I'm alright, really." He said, a somewhat shaky smile that Crow was going to guess was supposed to reassure him on his face "Sorry, I've just been...thinking, that's all. I'm sorry if I worried you, I'm fine." He explained as they turned another corner into a far more fancy looking hallway, decked out much the way that first room had looked; the walls were colored a deep shade of gold and the stone floor beneath their feet gave way to a soft, red rug that ran the length of the hall and maybe even farther then that. There were a few dark, wooden tables in this hall displaying more objects the king had bought. Crow actually took a moment to look at a few of them, deciding that the King had good taste.

Idly, he picked up a golden owl figurine with piercing red jeweled eyes perched on the large branch of what probably used to be an oak, if Crow had to guess. Examining it, he wouldn't deny, he was impressed by the craftsmanship and the detail put into the little golden bird "Pity we're here on official business..." The pirate said wistfully, and with a somewhat dramatic sigh Crow set the golden figurine back where it belonged.

He turned back around and noticed that Seto was a little ways ahead of him in the hall, staring at the wall with a somewhat blank look on his face. Crow was going to take a wild guess and say that the maroon haired boy was not admiring the wall.

"What'cha looking at?" He asked, smiling slightly as his friend jumped at the sound of his voice and turned back around, as if he'd forgotten that Crow was there as well.

"N-Nothing, really..." Seto answered, shuffling his feet in the manner that Crow was quickly learning meant that Seto was worried about something.

"Liar." Crow's bluntness caught the boy off guard "Seriously, what are you looking at?"

Seto frowned and crossed his arms, as if he wasn't going to answer. If Crow was going to continue to make more probably correct guesses, he would have to guess that Seto was still mad at him from earlier. Mad about what, well, Crow still had no idea. Finally, after a moment, Seto's face softened somewhat and he looked less tense.

"I can see guards somewhere ahead of us, but I'm not sure where exactly." Seto explained, reminding Crow of back in Garnet when Seto had said he could see Vulture towards the back of the store. He'd forgotten, Seto's white vision could see people through walls.

Crow frowned, walking over to the other and straining his ears for the now familiar sound of the guard's metallic shoes. He couldn't hear anything, at all. After a moment, he realized he was not at all surprised. The pirate glared at the floor annoyed.

"I cant hear them." He muttered "The carpet mutes any noise those stupid boots would make."

This was certainly a bad thing, going through all the stone hallways Crow had listened for the guards coming. But with carpet, that wasn't possible. He couldn't hear them.

"I can see them, though." Seto said again, frowning as if he'd been ignored "That should help a little, right?"

Crow looked at him for a moment before he gave Seto a slight smile. "Yeah, that'll come in handy." He replied, taking off his glove and reaching to take Seto's hand. To his surprise, Seto flinched back when he got close, like back in Garnet when they'd first met. Crow wasn't sure if Seto was still mad at him or not, unlike the other, he couldn't exactly look at someone and be able to tell from invisible rainbow fires. But he was about half sure that their fight had caused something to happen with the maroon haired boy.

"Can I see where the guards are at?" He asked, his voice coming out more impatient than he'd intended it to. Seto chewed his lip and thought about it for a moment, before he nodded quietly. Crow honestly felt like he was forcing his friend, but at the moment he didn't have much of a choice. He wasn't sure what was going on with Seto at that moment, but they were breaking into a palace and there were guards everywhere, and Seto's white vision was the only thing that could help them right then. Yes, he felt a little bad, but they did not have a lot of options. "When we get out of here, we're going to talk. Got it?" The statement looked like it caught Seto by surprise, but he didn't have any time to reply before Crow took his hand.

There was a larger than normal jolt between them that caught the both of them off guard, and Crow vaguely felt his friend's hand tighten during the brief moment of shock before everything went back to normal. Crow blinked rapidly, attempting to get re-used to the fact that his right eye was seeing something entirely different then normal before it finally focused and Crow was able to examine the room that was now bathed in white in half of his vision. After scanning for a moment the pirate saw the guards past the walls, or at least what he had grown to know what would be probably guards. Each way he looked, there were flames in varying colors ranging in size, some clear while others were oddly blurry.

"I'm going to guess the more blurry the fire, the farther away the guard?" Crow asked, staring long at one blurry flame in particular and trying to see if that made it any clearer. It didn't, unsurprisingly.

"Yeah, but aside from that there's not else much to tell where they're at." Seto said. Crow nodded and turned his head back to look at his companion, about to say something...when he stopped. One thing Crow never got used to when he was holding Seto's hand like this was his friend's left eye. It was the same as the first time he'd seen it, unsurprisingly. It still looked like a large, multicolored cat's eye marble covered in fire and spinning faster then was actually probably possible for a marble. The fires were different this time, however, the pirate noted rather slowly in his slightly entranced state. He hadn't really been able to identify the colors last time, they had all seemed like a blur, but now...he could see most of them very clearly, like he could see on the guards that were walking around right now.

Mostly, it was a color that reminded the pirate very much of the turquoise coat that was inside Seto's bag at the moment, just a slightly darker shade then the actual article of clothing. But rimming the initial flame were other colors, a melancholy sort of shade of blue and a few flecks of yellow were some that caught his attention.

Though really, one color stood out amongst all the others...a very pretty shade of red, not as sharp as the red he remembered seeing whenever Ren got angry, but more subdued but still making an impact more identifiable then the rest of the colors.

"Y-You're staring at me again..." Seto's voice brought him back to reality, and for a moment he looked at Seto's gray form. Why was only his eye colorful, and not the rest of him? Crow was no expert when it came to the whole 'white vision' thing, and he would never claim to be, but it seemed whenever he saw someone through it, their entire body was covered in multicolored flames. But Seto's wasn't. Seto was gray, and that was basically it. He remembered once that Seto had told him he didn't know why he was only gray in color while everyone else was surrounded by color, but still. The pirate wondered.

Crow gave a slight grin "Sorry, I got caught up staring at your eye." He explained, pointing to his own left eye as a sort of reference "I've been meaning to ask about it for awhile, why does it look like that?" Seto blinked at him surprised.

"Y-You can see my eye?" The maroon haired boy asked.

Crow looked at him, bemused "Am I not supposed to be able to?" He asked, frowning somewhat in confusion.

"Well...you never said if you could or not." Seto answered "I kind of assumed you couldn't, Zen didn't see it." That actually caught the pirate a little bit off guard.

"Zen cant see it?" He asked, and Seto blushed slightly.

"Well, I-I don't know if he can or not..." Seto explained, shuffling his feet slightly "I kinda guessed, since he probably would have said something. But he didn't, and he didn't stare like you always do..." Seto blushed a slightly deeper shade, and Crow felt his face tint into a warm pink.

"That is weird, though." Crow said, trying to stay on topic. Just not THAT topic. "Do you know why?" Seto looked at him, looking confused "Why I can see your left eye doing it's...weird, flame-y thing and other people cant?" For a moment, Crow was sure he'd said something wrong again as he'd looked back over to examine Seto's left eye once more. The melancholic blue part of the fire had gotten bigger with a single flicker like it had been hit by a breeze a little bit after he'd spoken.

Seto, however, did not portray whatever that could have meant "I don't know, honestly." He answered with a frown, chewing on his lip thoughtfully.

Crow thought about it for a moment before he sighed "We'll figure it out later." He said "We're still on a mission and if we get caught because we're trying to figure things out that probably have no answers no one's going to deliver that stupid letter. When we talk later, we'll figure something out." Seto still didn't look terribly excited about 'talking later', but at that moment Crow decided his friend would just have to deal with it "Until then...tally ho!"

* * *

Actually, after a few minor mishaps, the white vision proved itself to be very helpful most of time when avoiding guards. They just had to keep a very careful watch on the walls to wee which way the fires were going and how clear they were, and it got very easy to tell where the guards were walking and which way they were going. But they couldn't exactly see everywhere at once, which had caused issues for a bit at the beginning until one of them (Seto) began walking backwards and being led by Crow, so they weren't nearly caught from behind again. This worked out well, surprisingly.

"Crow...do you know which way we're going?" Seto asked.

"Of course!" Behind him, he could basically feel Seto's skepticism "...not." They sighed in unison.

Truthfully, neither had any idea where on earth to find the princess, or even where they should begin to look for that matter. It hadn't crossed either of their minds whilst planning this entire thing that they didn't know the layout of the plaza, Crow was now regretting not planning that far ahead before he'd come running in here. The plaza itself was huge, it was one of the largest buildings in the city. People who walked around it on a regular basis probably didn't even know how to get around it very well, it was big with a lot of very alike looking hallways, all decked out in red and gold with very few doors to identify anything.

The two boys walked out into another circular, tiled room much like the first room they'd come through and stopped to examine their choices. There were three ways counting the hall they had just come in, both leading into identical looking hallways. Seto sighed slightly as they examined their choices.

"I think by the time we get out of here," Crow commented "I'm going to hate red and gold." Seto laughed quietly behind him and walked to stand beside him to look between the halls, trying to decide which way to go.

"We're not really going anywhere doing this..." The maroon haired boy said "If we keep choosing at random we're going to get stuck in this place."

The boy had a point "You got any better ideas?" Crow asked, turning to raise an eyebrow at his friend and resiting the urge to stare at the large flames on one part of his face. Seto frowned at him for a moment and shook his head, having no answer.

And that's when they heard it.

"Hey, you two! What are you doing in the castle!" Both boys turned sharply around towards one of the halls they had been examining and saw him. A tall man who stood out against all the red and gold with a large metal helmet that was probably impossible to look sideways in, and large metal boots. They had been spotted by a guard, who had his hand on his sword as he started towards them.

Both boys were running down the opposite hallway before they even heard the guard calling for assistance, and out of the corner of his right eye he saw that there had been more guards walking around that tiled room then they had noticed. Crow cursed quietly, pulling Seto around the corner and away from the clatter of metal that the pirate had to assume was the guards running after them. Great, he thought sarcastically, now I can hear them as they're chasing us down.

Another sharp turn and they were in another luxuriously decorated hall with chandeliers hanging idly from the ceiling, not moving even as they ran underneath them as the guards seemed to start closing in. Another turn, and Crow was looking for a place to hide. Anywhere, just as long as they got away from the guards. But like the rest of the halls, there were very few doors and very few places to hide, just long unending hallways.

Suddenly, Seto ran ahead of him, pulling him faster then they'd already been going and pulled him around a corner the pirate hadn't seen...and then turned again and fell through the wall, which closed very simply behind them. Crow paused, walls don't close. Or open. He looked up and blinked in slight shock, they'd come through a very large wooden door and had landed thankfully on a white carpet.

"U-Um, C-Crow?" That was Seto's voice, of course. He turned his head back towards where he'd heard the voice and abruptly stopped when his head finished turning, his face going red.

Beneath him, Seto's head was laying on the carpet and his face was only a few inches from Crow's at that moment. Crow hadn't noticed it at first, but when they'd fallen through the door, he'd fallen on top of the maroon haired boy. At his moment in time he was **straddling** his best friend, and by complete accident. But the pirate didn't move automatically, like he should have. He stayed the way he was for a moment and just looked. Looked at his friend's face, and the wide eyes that were staring back him and the lips that were getting closer...

"Excuse me, who are you?" An unfamiliar voice broke through to the purple wearing pirate, and Crow immediately got off of his friend and sat up, looking for the source of the voice. Seto sat up next to him and found the source faster than he did.

"Princess?" He asked, a smile coming to his face. Crow blinked and looked, and was caught slightly off guard. Indeed, there was a girl in the room with them. She was wearing a long, light pink gown and a long, dirty blonde braid laid on one of her shoulders. Beautiful but cold light blue eyes regarded them, and her face showed no trace of emotion as she stared them down. This was the girl that merchant had been so apt to see? Crow almost felt sorry for him, she was way out of his league.

"I ask again, who are you?" The voice matched her face, emotionless and sounding something like a monotone as she spoke.

Quickly, Seto stood up and dug through his bag, introducing himself and Crow as he searched through it's contents. He explained what they were doing there, and he talked about Mar who was waiting for them outside, waiting to see if they were coming back with a reply. Crow stood up just as his friend was pulling out the now slightly crumpled letter, accidentally pulling the chicken plush out of the bag in the process, it landed softly on the floor and Seto didn't seem to notice it. Quickly, he stumbled over and held the letter out to the blue eyed girl, who stared at it blankly. Seto wondered for a moment if she was going to take it, before a delicate hand took it out of his hand.

Behind them, the doors crashed open unceremoniously and guards ran in, catching both boys off guard as Crow was apprehended quickly, being closest to the door. Seto quickly turned to look at the Princess, silently asking for help, but instead she just turned away from them silently and Seto heard the sound of paper crumpling until he saw the letter tossed to the ground in a ball. It was with a shocked look that the guards apprehended him, and he tried to pull out of their grip. When that didn't work, he tried to reason with the girl.

"Please, at least read the letter!" He pleaded to the Princess, whose back was still turned "He loves you, he has all this time! Don't you at least remember him?" A gloved hand pulled back roughly on his hair, cutting his words short.

"Do not speak to the princess, criminal." The guard ordered, pulling the boy backwards and turning him towards the door where the guards were waiting with a struggling crow, who was spitting curses at them. The princess still had her back turned towards them as they were both taken from the room, and as the door was closed finally behind them.

But at the same time behind that door, as the two were taken away, the blue eyed princess turned around and looked at the door when something caught her eye. With a flicker of curiosity inside of her, she walked over to where Seto had been standing only a few moments previously and knelt down to the ground, picking up the small chicken plush and held it in her hands as a wave of emotions hit her.

* * *

The dungeons were very, very quiet, or at least they seemed that way to Seto. They were also dim, and cold. The maroon haired boy shivered from his spot sitting against the wall, wishing they hadnt taken his bag so he could at least get his coat back out of it before letting his eyes wander over to the cell opposite of him, where he could see the faint outline of Crow pacing back and forth, though he could see the other more clearly in his left. Though looking at him, Seto felt guilty. His fire was full of angry reds and barely any other color, the pirate was furious right now.

"I still cant believe I let you talk me into this." The words were spoken suddenly, and that was when Seto was brought out of his guilt enough to notice Crow standing at the bars to his own cell, probably staring across to Seto's. The maroon haired boy stood up carefully, keeping his arms crossed to try and walking over to his own bars so he could see his friend more clearly.

"I'm sorry..." Seto hung his head, not that Crow could see. Seto felt terrible now. He was upset that they had gotten captured, of course. Who wouldn't be? But that wasn't what was on the forefront of his mind...the Princess was what was upsetting him the most. How could she have just tossed away something that was written just for her with such care? Didnt she want to know if she remembered someone who loved her so much...?

"Sorry isn't going to get us out of here, Seto!" Crow snapped, his tone catching the maroon haired boy off guard "Sorry isn't going to let us go back in time, or tell me not to do something this utterly pointless!"

Seto felt anger from earlier flare up in his heart "It wasn't pointless!" He shot back.

"She didn't even accept the stupid thing!" Crow answered angrily "And I knew she wouldn't! No one in their right mind would accept something like that from people breaking into their home, the idea was stupid to begin with!"

"No it wasn't!" Seto yelled back, his knuckles beginning to turn white as he clutched his hands "We had to at least try!"

"No, no we didn't!" Seto blinked at the statement "We didn't have to do anything, Seto, that's what I'm saying! We didn't have to break into a castle to deliver a stupid love letter from some guy we barely know, we did not have to do anything! But I was nice, and I agreed to help you out with this stupid escapade." He heard the pirate sigh irritably "I cant believe I ever agreed to this!"

"If you didn't want to do it, why did you?" Seto snapped "If you were so much against it, then you should have said so in the first place! I'm your friend, I would have understood! Why didn't you say no if you were so against it!"

Crow's answer shocked them both, and for a moment after there was a dead silence.

"I cant say no to you, you idiot!" He snapped "I don't think of you as a friend! I love you!"

**End Chapter**


	21. The Inland Sea

Chapter 21 "The Inland Sea"

"_I don't think of you as a friend, I love you!"_

_Love you…Love you…_The words echoed and reverberated off of the stone walls of the dungeon, traveling until they could no longer be heard by the two boys standing in shock in their individual cells. Surprise was painted clearly on both of their faces; Seto surprised at hearing the words, and Crow surprised at even having said them.

The pirate opened his mouth quickly, thinking fast to try and amend what he had said, say it was a mistake, but his mind and his mouth just weren't connecting the words. The pirate blinked at thought that he was speechless once again in the presence of the maroon haired boy he called his best friend, but realized that in fact, he wasn't speechless. He had already said the words. Crow wasn't going to go back on them now. He meant them, and he never went back on his word.

Silence reigned supreme between the two for what seemed like an eternity, but was really only the span of a few moments. Seto wasn't speaking…why wasn't he speaking? Crow thought worriedly, squinting in the dim light of the dungeons to see his friend in the cell across from him. He could see the boy for the most part, though he guessed had Seto been wearing his trademark, too big turquoise coat he'd be able to see him easier.

For his part, Seto was standing near completely still, aside from the twitches that indicated that the confession had indeed not stopped his heart. The pirate wondered whether or not he'd sent the poor boy into shock by accident.

"C-Crow, I-I-um…" Seto faltered, clenching his hands around the blue fabric that was the shirt Crow bought him. Where was his coat? He missed his coat. He wanted to go hide in the warm, brightly colored fabric. He wanted to hide. He wanted to think. He'd…he had heard Crow correctly, right? No, no, no of course he had. Crow would have said otherwise by now. Crow loved him. _Crow _loved him. Crow _loved_ him. Crow loved _him_.

_Crow loved him!_

Seto took in a sharp intake of breath at the thought, feeling his heart constrict in his chest like his ribs were tightening. He glanced self consciously at Crow in the dark, and watched the flames of the pirate undulate in color and size. They were continually changing; at one moment a worrying shade of blue, another a sickly green colored anticipation, the next colored a bright red and yellow of impatience. They were changing so much that the maroonette couldn't even begin to guess what Crow was feeling right then, except for one color.

That stomach flipping, deep shade of red.

Seto watched entranced as it bloomed and flowed all over Crow's normal deep blue fire, a constant within all of the other changing fires. A constant…was love constant? Was that heart squeezing, dizzying shade of red Crow's love for him?

The thought made him more ecstatic then he assumed was actually possible. The thought made him want to run and hide, to never see that entrancing shade of red again.

Seto didn't know what he wanted to do. He had never been in love, but was this how it felt? Was this how Crow felt? Seto blushed at the prospect of asking the pirate, though he almost knew for a fact that Crow would probably have an answer. Crow always had an answer for anything that Crow asked. Seto never knew how to answer anything. When Crow had asked about the flames he saw that day back in Garnet, he hadn't known the answer to any of Crow's questions.

But it was because of Crow that he was finding the answers, because Crow had taken him out of Garnet and into a world Seto could barely comprehend but was happy to just enjoy if Crow was there. He thought back to the night after they had escaped Ribon, and how Crow had comforted him. How Crow kissed him.

He remembered that he didn't want to live in a world that Crow wasn't in.

"C-Crow…" After the long period of silence which had really only taken place over a few seconds, Seto's quiet voice seemed incredibly loud and out of place "I…I don't really know how I feel about you." He admitted, his face darkening in a blush that warmed his entire face.

Crow blinked and stared over at the figure in the cell across from him, a thoughtful look on his face that went unseen. The pirate captain sighed "Ah well…I kind of expected that answer." He admitted, giving his hand a flippant wave. "Think about it all you want to, we've got time. We aren't going anywhere anytime soon." He said jokingly, rapping his knuckles on the cell bars. He heard Seto give a quiet laugh. The pirate felt his chest tighten, walking away from the bars to a darker corner of the cell as he heard clothes rustle in Seto's cell, probably the boy sitting down.

Crow had been honest, he'd expected that answer from him. Seto was the most socially awkward person he'd ever met, which he was sure was because he'd lived in near isolation from all human contact except for the man he called a grandfather until the man died.

And he would wait for an answer, no matter how long it took for Seto to decide, he would wait. And he would respect whatever conclusion the boy he loved came to.

But if Crow was being honest with himself, he wasn't sure if he wanted to hear Seto tell him no.

* * *

"Oh round white moon, oh how beautiful your light is tonight. How truly precious you can be. I look into your eyes and softly touch your hands. Farewell love, and tomorrow we will meet again."

"What'cha singing, Ren?" Toyo walked back over to the silver haired girl, who sat perched on top of a large stack of crates waiting for him to return with food. They had been shopping most the day and it was starting to get late; the sun would be setting in a few hours. He gave the girl a curious look as he hopped up onto a lower stack of crates next to hers', holding up the bread he'd managed to find for a half decent price.

His question went unanswered as she took the bread from him, giving it a slightly disapproving look "Was this all you could find?" She asked, taking a bite.

Toyo shrugged "You'd be amazed how much they charge for food in a City full of merchants." He answered with a tiny smile. Ren looked down and grinned.

"Nah, I kinda expected it." She said with a small laugh. The red head below her grinned, taking a large bite out of his own over priced bread and turned to look at the sight in front of them. He always found it amazing whenever they stopped in on Merchant City that all of these people could come together for the same thing, and is such a large number a city was dedicated to it. Or something like that, he hadn't really been paying attention when Zen had told him.

"So, how do you think Seto and Crow are doing on their little castle invasion?" He asked.

Ren hummed thoughtfully chewing on a piece of the bread, and swallowed "Dunno, I kinda expected them to be out of there by now actually." She said with a shrug "I'm surprised we didn't run into them yet." Both teens turned to give the plaza a glance, both wondering about the same thing.

"Are you sure it was a smart idea to get Crow to go with Seto in there?" Ren asked.

"Wasn't my idea, blame Zen for that one." Toyo said with a shake of his head, not sure what to think "Crow's pretty competent though; there's no way he would let something happen to them."

Ren and Toyo exchanged a glance.

"We should probably go talk to Zen." Ren suggested, hopping off the crate she was on and landing on the cobbles below "There's no doubt they've gotten into some trouble by now."

Zen stood up from his crate with a shake of his head "You don't have a lot of faith in them, do you?" He asked. Ren gave him a look. "Alright, alright I see your point." He conceded, motioning for the girl to lead the way to the library where the over silverette of the ship was still currently located. Ren rolled her eyes and started walking, and Toyo followed dutifully behind her. Until she suddenly stopped in front of a random shopping stall covered in books, letting out a squeal of delight as she grabbed it off the table. She whipped around, showing it to the red haired boy behind her.

The title read Feline Friends.

"Buy it for me." The pirate instinctively knew that this was not a request.

Toyo sighed. It would probably be awhile before the managed to get to the library.

* * *

"Hey Crow, can I ask you something?" Neither boy was sure how much time had passed since they'd been thrown into the dungeons, but were mostly aware of the fact that the guards seemed to have a pattern of patrolling by their cells. Crow had estimated they'd been there a few hours already, most of which was spent in silence since the pirate was leaving his friend alone so he could think.

The sudden start of a conversation startled him from his half asleep daze, and he gave an audible yawn. "Sure, whatever." He replied, standing up from where he'd sat down earlier to come and sit back down by the bars.

"You never told me, what was it like for you when you were growing up?" Crow could hear it in Seto's voice, unbridled curiosity.

"You're asking about that now?" The pirate asked "Now, while we're imprisoned under the Merchant City plaza for breaking into it?"

"So…?"

Crow let out an annoyed sigh."Please tell me that isn't what you've been thinking about this entire time."

"W-What? Of course not!" Seto grumbled "I just kind of figured it was fair. You know all about me, but I don't know all that much about you…isn't that how love works, when you know someone really well?"

There was a beat of silence.

Crow stared at the form in cell across from him with a look of sheer disbelief. Had Seto really just asked him that? A moment passed, and Crow realized that yes; Seto had just asked him that question. The pirate captain let out a laugh.

"I really forget how naïve you can be sometimes, Seto." Crow grinned, his disbelief slowly diffusing into amusement regarding the situation. "That isn't exactly how love works."

Seto looked at Crow indignantly for a moment –he was not naïve!- "But the people you always see that love each other always know each other well," he insisted "Like, they know what the other person is thinking, and can finish each others sentences."

"That's only part of it Seto, part of it." Crow said "It's way more complicated then that."

"Then explain better!" Seto retorted with a huff.

Crow couldn't help the smirk that came to his face, and idly hoped that Seto wasn't watching his flames that carefully. "It's not something that can be explained," Crow replied easily "It's something you have to experience, something you have to feel." Crow paused and smiled and eerily pleasant smile, one that went unseen in the dark, but could be heard in his voice "I could show you, if you like."

"No." Crow's face fell as his suggestion was shot down immediately. "I still want to know more about you first." Seto said stubbornly.

"You're still going on about that? Crow grumbled dejectedly.

"I'm not going on about it," Seto responded "You told me before you'd tell me, and where we are now we aren't going anywhere." Seto opened his mouth to speak again, but hesitated. Quietly, he said "I want to know more about Crow."

Faintly, off in the distance they both heard the _click, click, click _of a guard on his patrol. There weren't any windows in the dungeons, but he knew it was starting to get late if the guards were anything to go by. Were they going to be here all night? The pirate sighed, pinching the bride of his nose. "When did you get so stubborn?" He asked.

"When I started spending time with you." The maroon haired boy replied cheekily. Crow had to laugh at that.

"Fine, fine." He finally gave in, sure that in the dim light where Crow couldn't quite see Seto was smiling at the answer "But you have to promise not to interrupt me when I'm telling you, got it?"

"Got it."

* * *

Toyo glanced over at the silver haired girl as they walked; humming something to herself as she examined the book the red head had bought her with a smile on her face. Toyo wasn't sure, but he almost thought she only smiled that way when it involved cats. Though, he'd seen her smile at Seto a few times and maybe a few times at Zen. Was that book making her smile, or was it that Toyo had bought it for her…?

Toyo blushed up to his ears. What was he thinking? Of course she was just happy to have gotten the book. That was it.

"You really like cats, huh?" He blurted out he asked, causing Ren to blink and look up at him oddly.

"You hadn't figured that out for yourself already?" She asked dryly. The red head laughed nervously.

"Well, I mean, I kinda already knew that. Seto had said that back in that shop of yours' you had a ton of cats that you really cared about, and you seem really knowledgeable about them." He explained. "I was just kind of wonder why. What's so great about cats?"

The moment the words came out of his mouth, the red head regretted them. Ren stopped walking ad glared at him. He'd struck a nerve.

"For one thing, cats don't ask stupid questions." She said, looking at him. He tried to not let it get to him.

"That cant be it, can it?" He asked with a smile. Ren stared at him silently for a moment.

"You talk too much." Toyo blinked. Ren walked past his stunned form, only turning her head to tell him that they needed to get to the library and to Zen before it got too late.

"I do not!" Toyo yelled, running to catch up to her. Ren laughed, and ran ahead.

* * *

The second floor of the library was quiet. Zen, as he had said he would, had been looking throughout the library for things related to the Moon Tribe. He was still confused by it all, by the fact that as it stood, such a place should not exist. Could not exist. But Seto…Seto seemed to be living proof that a place as fantastically described as the Kingdom of the Moon existed.

Most of what the silverette found were stories based on the legends he'd already found about the Moon Tribe. A civilization that had been run from their home, only to be destroyed as they finally found a safe haven. A place that time forgot, surrounded by crystals hidden somewhere beneath the ocean. This was the only constant thing in most stories, from there details differed. Some speculated that the people of the Moon had become the fabled mermaids of many stories. Others said that only the entrance was in the ocean, and that somehow the kingdom stood in another dimension or a self-sustaining bubble. Others theorized that the people of the moon were descendants of the rabbit who lived on the moon, and likewise retained its' features. There were so many different theories that Zen didn't know where to start.

He had so far found absolutely nothing concerning the map beside what he had found already. He had also not found anything regarding multicolored flames in regards to anything. His research into the creatures that Seto had described that Vulture and the young girls from Ribon looked like in this white vision came up with nothing. White vision in general was a search that proved equally fruitless.

Zen was starting to get frustrated. Here he was, at one of the largest libraries over the seven seas, and he could just not find what he was looking for!

The silver haired pirate let his head drop onto the table with a thunk. He let it set there for a few minutes, collecting his thoughts. Maybe he was going about his research the wrong way? Of course there were no solid findings on the Moon Tribe or anything related to them, there were only theories. Should he try more than skimming the stories…? But what would be the point, since they were all just based on the theories?

Zen sighed, lifting his head. He looked around the table before him, covered in star charts and books. He reached over and grabbed a novel from one of the stacks that had accumulated during his research.

"_The Inland Sea_…?" He muttered, flipping the book open curiously "What was this about again?"

"_I had a dream, that a familiar voice was calling me. As I walked along, it spoke to me. Sometimes worried. Sometimes happy. We watched the red sky full of clouds above our new home, caught up in the wind of the season called summer. The little time we spent together shone brilliantly like a light in those darkened days of the past…I know that matter how badly I wish to see you again, that it can never again happen in this world_-"

"_A world where those who live must continue to live_." An unknown, feminine voice cut in "_And those who are dead should only continue to stay dead in the cold, hard earth by the inland sea,_ right?" Zen turned in surprise, and that's when he caught sight of her.

A pale girl with dark hair stood there covered in bandages, only hidden slightly by her large pink coat and her shorts. The eye that wasn't hidden behind her bangs was regarding him. She snapped her fingers to get his attention.

"_The Inland Sea_, that's what you're reading right?" She asked, wandering over, her bare feet making no noise as they walked across the tiled floor to where Zen was seated.

"How did you know, just from a few lines?" He asked suspiciously, holding the book up.

The girl laughed "Believe me, anyone who's looking for information about the mythic treasure left behind by the fabled Moon Tribe has read every book on this table of yours' enough to have the information memorized." She said, knocking on one of the harder book covers for emphasis.

The silver haired boy looked at her in surprise "You're looking for the treasure?" He asked.

The girl shook her head, moving her bangs to the side of her face, revealing a bright while eye patch "Not at the moment." She answered "The crew I was with left me behind her, the jerks." Her blue eye scanned the table curiously, looking over what Zen had been looking at.

"What's your name, kid?" She asked.

Zen rolled his eyes "Didn't your mom teach you any manners? You first." He replied, stealing one of his captain's favorite lines.

The girl glared at him. "How rude." She gave him a once over "My name's Sai."

Zen stared at her for a moment. "Have we met before?" He asked, his eyes not leaving her one.

"Not that I can think of, I don't think I'd forget a bratty kid like you." She countered with an annoyed tone "So what's your name?"

The silver haired boy shrugged. "Name's Zen."

* * *

"Our story today begins," Crow started dramatically "In a small city by the sea called Tourmaline."

* * *

In a lavishly decorated room within the King's Plaza, a girl sat with a letter in her hands and a toy chicken on her lap. Her cornflower blue eyes, for the first time in years, were wet with tears.

END CHAPTER

I'm not going to lie, this chapter did NOT come out the way I planned. Also, major apologies for being late, and semi-breaking the promise to bring you two chapters after that wait...I lost the flash drive that had this entire story saved on it so I had to re-write both this chapter and the half of 22 (which is not done, hence apologies) over the weekend. Well, after I played Fragile Dreams in my depression at losing my flash drive, at least...

Anyways! Sorry if this one seemed rushed, I was trying to get it done quickly. I'm getting close to finishing with chapter 22, but please, be patient with me?

Also, side note! For those keeping score at home, chapters 1-12 have been fixed and edited and whatnot. I'll alert you all (whomever is still hanging around, at least) when I finish fixing them all so you can go back and enjoy the story -hopefully- more~

Anyways! I'm done for now, reviews and criticism are well enjoyed~ They both make my day.

Until we meet again!

~Sleepy ;D

Until we meet again!

~Sleepy ;D


	22. Tourmaline

Chapter 22 "Tourmaline"

"What is it that you needed, milady?" Three guards stood dutifully behind the Princess where she sat at her vanity. For the princess to call them to her chambers in was odd. Especially at the time of night it was, the sun had already long since set below the horizon. What could their princess possibly need?

The girl with the dirty blonde hair flowing past her shoulders out of its' usual braid looked at them in the mirror, her normally cold eyes seeming to hold more emotion in them than normal.

"I need you to bring up those two boys you apprehended this morning." She answered coolly, standing from her vanity to face them. "I wish to speak to them." One of the guards let out a gasp.

"But Princess! They broke into the plaza, they could want to harm you-"

"Please answer my request with haste." The princess stated, ignoring the interruption by the guard "And be sure to return to them the items they came in with." The guards stood looking at her with slightly dumb struck looks hidden behind their helmets. "That is all, you may go now." She said finally, nodding towards the door.

The guards exited in unified confusion. The princess watched them until the last closed the door behind himself, and she turned to glance at the letter sitting by her mirror.

* * *

"I guess if you want, you could compare Tourmaline to Garnet." Crow explained "Besides the fact that Garnet is pretty much a labyrinth disguised as a town. They're both ports with lots of heavy trading going on, but we never rang bells for pirates when they entered town." He said with a grin "Pirates were part of what kept business in the city going, and ringing bells like that just makes a pirate they've got power over the town anyways." Over in his cell, Seto rolled his eyes at his friend's smug tone.

"My mom died when I was a kid and it was just me and my dad in a tiny house towards the edge of the city. He let me work with him a lot since I couldn't get a job anywhere else in town."

"Why not?" Seto piped up curiously.

Crow shot him a look in the dim light "Thought we agreed you weren't going to talk while I told this?" He asked. When he received no reply, he continued "Most people in town refused to hire me because the way I look." He explained with a shrug of his shoulders, taking a seat at the bars "Can't really blame them. I look pretty weird."

"I like how you look…" Seto mumbled quietly. The pirate's hearing perked up. He laughed.

"Really? You looked terrified when you saw me for the first time." Crow countered, remembering the moment in his head.

"W-Well, that was because, well…um…a little while before you and Ren came to the shop, I had been feeding all the cats and they ganged up on me." He explained, feeling his face heat up "You look really cat like, so when you walked in…"

Crow was silent for a good couple of seconds after hearing that. "Let me get this straight," He said skeptically "Not only were you in debt to a cat, but they used to gang up on you?" Crow's answer was silence. The pirate was sure that over in his cell, Seto was failing to glare at him. As usual. The image was more amusing then the one of cats ganging up on the poor boy. Crow chuckled.

"S'not funny, Crow."

"Yes it is. Years from now, you'll look back on it all in laugh." Crow replied cheerfully. "Anyways, did you just say that I look like a cat?"

"That's not what I meant, Crow. Cat-like, not exactly like a cat." The maroon haired boy said with a sigh "Like the way your eyes are, they look like a cat's." Crow frowned at that.

"You think so?" He asked, scratching his head.

"Yup." The maroonette nodded in the dark "And sometimes when you grin you look like the Cheshire Cat from Wonderland."

"Huh…" Well, that was an interesting opinion. Though hearing Seto say he didn't think he looked weird had probably made his night. If it was night. It felt like night time at least, the dungeons had cooled considerably, but the light coming in hadn't changed. He wondered how Seto was doing without his coat. What time was it?

"Anyways, where was I before you interrupted me again?" Crow asked smirking slightly, taking his mind off of the matter "Right, my lack of employment."

"The set-up me and my father had worked well for awhile. I didn't get paid for it exactly; I got an allowance for it once in awhile. All in all it probably would have worked until I left Tourmaline when I got old enough. As you can probably tell from my current employment, that didn't exactly happen as planned." The pirates tone was sarcastic.

"One day out of the blue when I was seven, I woke up and he was just gone." The statement caught Seto off guard.

"He was gone?" Seto asked "Did he leave?"

Crow forgot for a moment that Seto couldn't see the look he was giving him for interrupting him a third time, and just let it slide "No. When I asked around town no one had seen him leave. It was as if...he just vanished. He vanished and left me behind." Crow stopped, taking a deep breath. "Life was pretty hard after he vanished. People still wouldn't hire me, and even though I mostly knew the work he'd been doing, I didn't know it well enough to make any sort of profit. More often than not I just stole from people when I needed to. I hated it at first, but when you're hungry from three days of no food and some lady isn't watching her fat purse, part of you just quits caring quite as much after awhile." Crow continued in a bitter tone.

"I figured that if I stayed in town long enough, my dad would come back. I waited for years, stealing to get by and making barely any money. And then it hit me. He wasn't coming back." The way Crow had said it, it made Seto think that it was already a foregone conclusion.

"So I started looking for ways to get out of town, a way that would get me around the world the fastest. The obvious answer was the trade ships in town, but I figured out pretty quick that the security was way too tight for even me to slip past." Crow shrugged again at that "That didn't leave me a lot of options ship wise. Fishing ships went out to sea all the time, but they always came back since they were local. That really left me with only one half good option."

"The pirate ships." In the dark of his cell, Crow nodded at the maroon haired boy's correct assumption.

"Yup." He said "Pirates were the only other ships besides trade ships that went to multiple ports after they left Tourmaline, and the security was a lot more lax since most people weren't stupid enough to try and stow away on one."

"But you tried anyways." Seto commented, a small smile on his face.

"It was the last best option I had." Crow shot back, sticking his tongue out at the other boy. He then remembered it was too dim to see and scowled, they REALLY needed to fix that soon. "Besides, sneaking on board wasn't that hard. Neither was staying hidden, I ended up really far towards the back of the ship on the lower decks where most of the pirates didn't go. It was close to storage too, so I still managed to get food after they took off from the port."

Crow sighed in a wistful manner "I remember the first few days after they set sail. It was really scary, honestly. I'd never been on a boat before in my life and the shaking on the lower decks was bad, not to mention it was pitch black down there. But there was something that was still exciting about it, it was still an adventure. Where we would we land? Would I get caught? I was only twelve, but the all the possibilities of everything that could happen almost made it impossible to sleep at night sometimes."

Seto couldn't stop himself from smiling at Crow's excited tone. It was nice…to hear him just talk like this together. Seto was sure he'd only every heard him talk so animatedly when they were talking about the treasure and Crow was staring up at that line of gray stars.

"I don't really know how long I was down there, a few weeks at least I guess. We ended up making port at a small fishing town called Jasper, and that's when things started taking a turn for the worse on my trip." In the dark, Crow momentarily grimaced "I think it was early morning when we'd landed, and I wanted to get off the ship and into town before any of the pirates started walking around. As it turns out, I didn't make it far before I got cornered by an obnoxious boy older than me with silver hair and his stupid red headed friend."

Seto couldn't stop himself from laughing at that "Zen and Toyo caught you?"

"That they did, they were real smug about it too." Crow said, sounding more annoyed than anything at the memory "They dragged me to the captain's quarters and tossed me in."

"Were you scared?" Seto asked, leaning closer to the bars with interest.

And once again, Crow rolling his eyes at the boy's insistent questions went unseen "Of course I was scared." He answered bluntly "You try facing off with a guy who's twice your size and looks like he could snap you in half. Captain Raven was not a guy to mess with."

* * *

"Wait, wait, wait, wait how do have a map?" Sai asked impatiently and skeptical, leaning over Zen's shoulder to look at the star chart that Crow and Seto had lent them that the two had been working on. He'd been meaning to ask Seto to let him sea the sky again to double check his captain's handiwork, for a navigator and chart maker Crow was definitely not. He also just kind of wanted to see the sky lit up like that again, but he knew telling Crow that would get him thrown off the ship into the water. Or worse.

The silver haired boy felt himself blush slightly at the sudden closeness, but ignored it to reply smartly "Can't tell you that." Sai's blue eye glared at him in annoyance and she sat down in a huff in the chair next to his, arms and legs crossed.

"Why not?" She asked "We're both looking for the same thing, aren't we? What's it matter if you tell me where you got your map?"

The pirate gave her a knowing smile "Because you might get to the treasure before us, obviously." The eye-patched girl rolled her eye but made no comment to correct him. "But if we are sharing info here, how about you tell me what you know?"

"You're not really good at this whole info swapping thing are you?" She asked dryly. Zen shrugged.

"Communication was never my thing." He answered honestly "Too many useless words, too many ways something you say can be interpreted."

There was a silence between the two of them as the silverette glanced back down to the star chart and the ebony haired girl stared at him silently. This continued on for a few minutes until Zen twitched, and turned to look at her with a small glare.

"What are staring at?" He asked finally, and the odd smile she gave him in reply made a shiver go down his spine.

"Nothing, you're just a funny kid, that's all." She said standing up suddenly, stretching her arms upwards.

"ZEN!" Ren's shrill voice broke the silence of the library. The silver haired boy let his head fall to the table with a thunk and Sai giggled, walking over to the banister that looked down to the main area of the floor below. There a certain silver haired girl with an impatient look and a tapping foot as she stood next to a boy with bright, fiery red hair who was shaking his head; clearly having given up on something.

"Up here." She called down, causing the two to cast a quizzical look around them before they found her on the banister. She motioned with her hand for them to come up and after a moment's pause she saw them run for the stairs. She turned to look at Zen, still looking rather put out and head still on the table atop the star chart. She'd be lying if she said the idea that he was using such a valuable thing as a head rest didn't bother her.

"Friends of yours'?" She asked as Ren and Toyo reached their destination.

Sai was completely ignored as they rushed over to the table, quickly explaining the entire situation as they were aware to the boy as he slowly lifted his silver head off of the table to regard them.

"You think they got arrested?" He asked.

"They should have been out by now Zen! The suns gone down already and they went in this morning." Ren explained again with an exasperated sigh. She looked around the library for a moment before her eyes landed on Sai standing off to the side. She blinked at her as if she'd forgotten she was there "Who's this?" She asked suspiciously, giving her a once over look.

Sai narrowed her eyes at her. This girl was already getting on her nerves "You know, you could always ask me." She said shortly. The silver haired girl glared at her.

"Fine then, who are you?"

Sai sighed "Are ALL of you always this rude?" She couldn't help but ask "My name is Sai. What should I be calling you two?" She indicated Ren and Toyo.

"I'm-"

"What are you doing up here with Zen?" Ren asked, cutting Toyo off. Both boys exchanged wary glances with each other. It'd been awhile since they'd seen her act like this…they'd have to remember to ask Seto later how she was when they met. Was she always this hostile to strangers?

The significantly darker haired girl gave Ren an even darker look "I know about the treasure you guys are after and seeing if your friend had any useless info." Sai smirked triumphantly when she saw a look of surprise flash over the younger girl's face. She hoped that knocked her down a few pegs "I ask again, what can I call you two?"

Ren opened her mouth to say something, but the roles were reversed this time, and Toyo got talking before she has a chance to say a word "I'm Toyo, and this is Ren. She's the first mate on the ship me and Zen work on." He explained. He snatched a look at the aforementioned girl and swallowed dryly, glad that looks weren't lethal. He turned his attention back to Sai.

"It's nice to meet you, I guess." The dark haired said with mild indifference, glancing slightly at the silver haired girl before speaking "What was that about someone being arrested?"

Toyo let out a nervous sounding laugh "Well, that's actually kind of a funny story…"

* * *

"Captain Raven…" Seto frowned, sounding out the name to himself quietly. Why did that name seem so familiar? He blinked "Oh! He was that pirate that raided the Lapis Port navy base a few years ago, wasn't he?" Of course! Seto heard about it while he had been traveling, he'd passed through that port while he was heading east. The port was mostly put back together and it was running again, but when he'd looked out to the water he saw a lot of ships patrolling for what he heard were pieces of the ships Raven had tore through while going towards the seaside city. Wandering around he had saw that in some places, the damage hadn't been fixed yet.

"The very same." Crow answered, a fondness slipping into his voice at the memory that made the maroon haired boy remember suddenly that he was, in fact, still talking to a pirate. With how Crow acted usually, he tended to forget…he'd heard from crew members that when Crew got appointed Captain after Raven, the ship raids had nearly come to a complete stop. But they said that before that, well, 'he'd have to ask Crow himself', is what they said.

Seto suddenly had an idea about what they were talking about.

"…wasn't happy that I'd been eating through his supplies. He'd noticed the food gone and blamed it on rats. Said that if I wanted live I was gonna have to work it all off." Crow was explaining with a laugh. Seto blinked and realized he hadn't heard a word of what had just been said. "Gave me name that I could go by while I was the Black Wing's ship, and ever since then I went by Crow."

The maroon haired boy started "Crow isn't your real name?" He asked shocked. There was a silence. Crow was giving him an are-you-seriously-asking-me-that? look from across in his cell that wasn't answered for obvious reasons.

"Of course it isn't." He stated simply "Who names their kid Crow? Toyo and Zen have real names too, just like everyone on the ship. You and Ren are the only ones who go by their names onboard." He explained.

Seto felt a weird, unpleasant feeling twist in his stomach hearing that and shook his head a bit to try and make it go away. That just made his head hurt and made his eyes feel weird. "But, why go by different names?" He asked quietly.

"When a lot of the people on board joined under Captain Raven, they were all ready to leave their old lives behind, Seto. Toyo was running from his country, and I don't know Zen's story, and I had pretty much left behind Tourmaline at that point anyways and that had been my life. New life, new name." Crow said apathetically, sitting back down in front of his bars to look at the boy across from him.

The pirate blinked slightly when he realized Seto wasn't replying. Silence was filtering in between them once more and there wasn't even the clicking of guards to break it.

"…Seto?"

"Who have I been talking to, then?" The quiet voice of Seto reached his ears and confusion washed through his brain.

"Me, duh." Crow answered "There's no one else here." There was movement in the dark of Seto's cell, and it took a moment for him to realize it was the maroon haired boy shaking his head.

"No, that isn't what I meant." Seto said for the second time during their duration of prison. "Have I been talking to Crow, or the boy who ran away from Tourmaline? Toyo, or Zen? This entire time I haven't been calling you guys the right names, so who have I been talking to?"

Crow had to be honest, he didn't entirely understand that train of thought that Seto had going. "Seto, what have you been calling me the entire time you've known me?" he asked patiently.

"Crow…"

"And what have you been calling Toyo and Zen?"

"Toyo and Zen." Seto said.

"See there?" Crow pointed out "You don't know a boy from Tourmaline. You know the awesome, _handsome_ might I add, pirate named Crow. And you know two idiots called Toyo and Zen." Seto laughed a bit at that, and Crow smiled softly "We're the people you know now Seto, and that's what matters. Whenever you talk to me, you're talking to Crow, you got that?"

"I got it." Said the maroon haired boy, before he let out a small yawn.

"Getting tired over there?" He asked, the grin evident in his voice.

"I'm not tired-"He was interrupted by a yawn "I just got really drowsy all of a sudden, that's'all." He grumbled "It's too cold to sleep down here anyways, how long are we going to be down here…?"

"Well, we did kinda sorta break into a palace of a plaza." Crow reminded his friend, smiling softly "Sorry I made you get rid of your coat."

"It's ok, you did it for a reason, right?"

"It is pretty bright and obnoxious." Crow teased.

"Is not."

"Is too."

"Is not."

"Is too~"

"Is not-"

_click, click, click, click, click_

Both boys went quiet, listening to the first actual indication that there were still guards patrolling down there.

_click clack click, click clack click_

A light rounded the corner of the hall to Crow's right, casting the shadows of whoever was holding the torch wildly on the bars of the far cells. Three guards came around the corner lead by only a single torch between them. Explained the extra noise, Crow mused.

The trio stopped in front of the boy's cells, illuminating their faces and letting them see each other for the first time in what felt like far more than however hours they'd been down there. Both boys squinted at the sudden intrusion before their eyes adjusted, and they glanced at each other.

It would have been a sweet moment had three guards and prison bars between them.

"And what can I help you three sirs with today? Ya lost?" Crow asked with a mock sort of cheerfulness. Apparently it wasn't shared with the guards as their scowls deepened and one of them pulled out a ring of keys.

* * *

"So let me get this completely straight," Sai said after Toyo had finished explaining as they sat around the table covered in books and charts "Your friend, this Seto kid, was trying to help this merchant and the princess get together, but your captain didn't want to help. You three wanted to get the two of them together and convinced him to help Seto break into the main part of the plaza this morning, and now it's evening and you only think they got caught?" Sai scanned her eye over the three younger teens "Do I have about all of that right?

Zen and Toyo looked sheepish as their not so perfect plan was laid out in front of them while Ren let out a huff of annoyance.

"No, I think you pretty much covered everything…" Zen said with a sigh, running a hand through his hair as he stood up from the table.

"And now you intend to break in and save them?"

Toyo shrugged "That was the plan I was going with." He answered.

Sai stared at the trio for a few silent seconds, wondering how on the seven seas all of these reckless teenagers were keeping a pirate ship of all things running at all. "You'd be better off waiting until tomorrow to go on your little rescue mission."

Ren's eyes snapped to her "And leave them where they are now? They could be doing terrible things to Seto right now!" No one missed the fact she seemed to have purposefully forgotten Crow in this situation.

Sai rolled her eyes "You're an imaginative girl." She tutted "They're in the dungeons at worst, or at best they got their message through and are drinking tea with the princess and just lost track of time." Ren glared at her again, and the boys were half sure that if it was possible sparks would start flying.

A voice calling them caught their attention, and Toyo frowned slightly as a man with sandy blonde, red streaked hair came running up to them.

"Isn't that the merchant?" The red head asked.

* * *

Tired or not, a grin was nearly splitting Seto's face as he snuggled into the familiar fabric of his coat and clutched his bag close. Currently, he and Crow were following the three irritated looking guards down familiar red and gold crafted hallways. Seto wondered where they were going. Crow had asked a few times and the guards had ignored him.

"Um…where are we going?" He asked. One of the guards turned to give him a dark look that made Seto flinch. The guard's eyes softened automatically. Crow snickered quietly. No one could win against Seto's adorableness.

"The princess wants to see you." He answered gruffly. Seto blinked, looking over to Crow who suddenly looked much less amused.

For awhile after that the only sound in the almost completely silent palace besides the soft padding of their feet on the carpets. Seto let out a small yawn, and Crow found himself checking around for clocks to check the time. They'd passed a few windows and it was certainly dark outside, but what time was it?

The pirate nearly walked into the backs of the guards when they stopped suddenly in front of a pair of double doors. Crow gave them a dirty look, but Seto seemed hopeful.

One of the guards, the one who had spoken to Seto, knocked on the door. "Your Majesty?"

It was quiet for a moment.

"You may come in."

End Chapter

…Yeah, no excuses this time -.- Not even gonna try~ Happy New Year, by the way everyone!

Anyways! As I was writing this I caught myself thinking "Who would name their kid after a scavenging bird..?" Bet you guys didn't see that coming, huh?...I didn't either, but that's not the point here. I'm not gonna lie though, trying to come up with Crow's past was not as easy as I thought it would be…the game didn't give me much to go on. Shocker though, Toyo and Zen have back stories! Ren has one, too. So does Sai. And they'll all get covered…at some point.

No promises when, but sometime!

As always, reviews are much loved. It was actually a recent one that gave me the urge to finish this chapter, you guys really keep me going. And if you see any mistakes point them out so I can fix them!

Till next time!

-Sleepy ;D


	23. Release, Catch, Release

Chapter 23 "Release, Catch, Release"

The Merchant City Library was silent. Well, more so silent than it was during the day at least. With the time it was getting the amount of people filtering through the boundless shelves of information had slowly began to cease and the whisper of turning pages had all but disappeared with the crowds. There was no doubt that there were still people in the library as it was open all day and night, but most people by now had headed back to their homes for the night as the night librarian went through and started extinguishing lights that weren't in use.

Now, this was a job she was used to. She did it every night after all. But in all her years she had never seen a stranger sight. There was a group on the second floor of the library tonight. She recognized two of them with some relative ease. A young man with silver hair dressed in loose fitting clothing who could probably use a haircut, who she remembered seeing leave the library the night before with two younger gentlemen. The other face she recognized very vaguely as the dark haired young woman with no shoes and an eye patch who had frequented the library every day a month or so ago before she abruptly just…well, stopped coming to the library in general.

The other three, however, she had absolutely no idea about. A young lady with ash-blonde, nearly silver in color hair also with no shoes and a dress that seemed to be held together by nothing else but the strips of fabric running up her sides. A gentleman with unnaturally bright auburn hair that looked red that was most likely about the same age as the silver haired youth with nearly the same attire, but the boy in question was wearing shorts and a short sleeve shirt compared to the boy with silver hair who was dressed in pants and a long sleeved shirt. An older gentleman was standing with them with very odd, very light blonde hair with a literal stripe of red hair going through it all. He looked gruff, and also had an eye patch.

The librarian had no idea what such a rag-tag group was doing in her library at this hour.

When she had walked past them their whispering stopped completely, but resumed as soon as she had passed. She was almost inclined to call the guard on these suspicious people!

* * *

"I thought you guys were pirates." Mar was muttering, sounding very annoyed. Not at the fact that Crow and Seto were possibly under arrest for breaking and entering, but because if they were caught there was a much slimmer chance that the Princess had gotten his letter.

"Would you be quiet, please?" Zen asked sharply, shooting the merchant a look.

"Seriously, if it wasn't for you they wouldn't be in this mess anyways," Toyo reminded him "You could at least ACT worried about them."

Mar had shown up about a half hour ago looking for them when Crow and Seto had failed to show up and give him a reply from the Princess. He had checked the shopping plaza before coming to the library thinking that at the least their friends would be here like they had been yesterday and might have any idea where Seto and his pirate friend were. The news that they all thought they had gotten caught had soured his mood considerably. He'd been of the assumption that the pirate half of the pair breaking in would be able to get them in and out with very few problems and was mad that that was not the case.

"So how are we thinking about doing this?" Ren asked, ignoring the merchant completely as he stewed in his own thoughts. She'd been ignoring him for most of the time he'd been here, starting after a comment about his love letter not getting delivered. "How'd they get in?"

"There are entrances to the main palace in the shopping plaza." Sai explained, wondering for a moment if she was going to be ignored like the chicken looking merchant "They're heavily guarded, but not impossible to get through."

Ren gave her a slightly suspicious look, more or less wondering how Sai knew that information, but backed off. "You know, going in through the main plaza isn't probably possible right now anyways." She commented thoughtfully "If they were caught it's probably guarded a lot more heavily than usually."

"You think there are any other ways in?" Toyo asked with a frown.

"Of course there are." Zen said "A palace that size definitely has more than the few entrances located in the shopping plaza. Especially in case of an attack or something that would need to get the King and his family out of the plaza in the safest way possible."

"You mean secret passages?" Mar asked.

Zen nodded. "Pretty much."

The conversation stopped for a moment as the librarian, a mousy looking woman who had to be in her late forties, walked past them with a candle snuffer in hand.

"You think a city map would show those?" Toyo asked quietly after the sound of the librarian's food steps faded away to another aisle and area.

"No." Mar answered bluntly. Toyo and Ren shot him a glare. He shrugged helplessly "It's true."

"You're probably right." Zen conceded, frowning thoughtfully "It would be dangerous for the palace and everything in it if any of those entrances were on a map."

Silence fell upon the rag-tag group as everyone thought about how they might be able to get into the plaza.

Except for Zen, who was wondering about something else. Something else no one else knew. Why hadn't Seto broken the two of them out? Certainly he had the ability to…?

"What about building plans?" Ren piped up suddenly.

"I don't think that they'd have the plans for the plaza in the library, Ren." Zen explained.

"Why not?" She countered. "It seems pretty likely. This is one of the bigger libraries in the world so a lot of people come to study here, right? And it's connected to a land mark, a piece of famous…"

"Architecture." Zen finished for her. Ren nodded "You're thinking that they would have the plans in the library for people who wanted to study how the King's Plaza was built."

That was a very sound theory. The King's Plaza was an architectural masterpiece from the time period it was built due to its size and the glass dome that set atop it, the reason it was the icon of the city in the first place. The glass was created using a special technique that had been invented during its construction, the reason it shimmered like jewels when seen from the sea. Many scholars and students came to the city each year to study just the dome itself.

The mousy looking librarian walked by them again, snatching a wary glance as she hurried passed.

Toyo was up and out of his chair in a flash and hurried over to her, flashing a disarming smile. Zen rolled his eyes; his red haired friend had always had a way with women. Ren huffed in annoyance.

"Excuse me, my lady." She relaxed slightly "Do you happen to have a section on architecture in this fine establishment?"

* * *

The guards stayed stoic at the door as Crow and Seto took a few hesitant steps towards the blonde princess. Crow took a quick glance around the room and found a large, lavishly designed clock situated on a wall to the side of the door. The pirate captain paled at the time. It was much later than he thought it was, almost the middle of the night! His crew was probably noticing his absence about now…Ren was probably absolutely furious by now.

"Guards, you may leave now." The princess commanded in a soft, cold sounding voice. A guard, the one who had spoken to Seto while they were being led here, began to protest. The taller guard interrupted him and bid the princess a good evening and they would be outside the room just in case they were needed. The princess, for her part, didn't respond and didn't speak again until the door had closed once more. Leaving her alone in a room with the pair that had broken into her father's palace.

From Seto's point of view it was as if she hadn't moved since they had been apprehended earlier that day. She sat primly at her vanity with her back to them staring at their reflections in the mirror. She seemed somehow different from then, though, Seto thought. Her eyes seemed somehow brighter, and her makeup seemed…smudged.

"Have you ever heard the story of this city?" The Princess asked. Neither boy answered, unsure if she was asking or if she was being redundant. Seto nodded, though he only vaguely remembered Zen telling it to him. "A country on the verge of a financial crisis and the nameless merchant that saves it for the sole reason of wanting to see the King's daughter smile again. " To both boys' shock, the princess let out a laugh and smiled wryly "Such a fairytale isn't it?"

The princess turned to face them in her seat. Sitting on her lap was the small chicken plush Seto hadn't realized had fallen out his bag and in her hands, once again surprising Seto and Crow, was Mar's letter.

A smile stretched across the maroon haired boy's face, "You read it?" He asked, his tone hopeful.

The princess nodded "I always used to dream of a fairytale life like that. I dreamt that I would marry a man who would do what he could to make me happy, and I met that man…or really, the boy who would grow into that man. But he left, and my dream was shattered."

The princess set the letter down and held up the small stuffed toy sitting in her lap. "You dropped this earlier, where did you find it?"

"A friend of mine had it." He explained "It was in her store."

"He made this for me when we were children." She said wistfully, her voice sounding like she could start crying any moment. "When we were younger I contracted chicken pox, and he made this for me to feel better."

"Mar made that?" Seto asked in surprise. The little stuffed toy was very well made, the maroon haired boy had figured it had been mass produced in some other country or city. That Mar had made it and that t had ended up in Ren's shop of all places…

"Small world." Crow commented.

"Mar the boy made this for me." The princess corrected sharply. "Mar the man sounds like a completely different person."

"He would, he's not exactly a boy anymore." Crow stated resisting the urge to roll his eyes "He's a lot taller now. And he has an eye patch."

"He isn't a pirate, is he?" The princess asked surprised. "His letter said he was a merchant in the city now…"

Seto quickly shook his head "No, he isn't a pirate. Honest." Crow almost rolled his eyes.

"If you're that worried then just meet him." Crow said, crossing his arms. "You aren't going to get to know him just by reading a letter or from what we tell you."

The princess frowned; rubbing her thumb over the small chicken plush's head thoughtfully she said "I do not think meeting with him is possible."

Seto's heart fell "Why not?"

"When I am out of the palace I am not allowed to speak to anyone," she explained, tear forming in her cornflower blue eyes "and for him to get an audience with me is impossible. It's hopeless." Her grip on the stuffed toy tightened and a small drop of water hit its head.

"Princess…"Seto didn't know what to say to make her stop crying. She couldn't be right, though! It wasn't hopeless, it just couldn't be. The princess's quiet sobs filled the room.

A very disgruntled sigh erupted and broke through it.

"Are you done yet?" Crow snapped incredulously, catching both the princess and Seto off guard.

"E-Excuse me?"

"I asked are you done yet?" Crow repeated, staring at the princess as she tried to process his question with little success. The pirate rolled his eyes "Are you done crying yet? It's really annoying."

"C-Crow…!" Seto stared at his friend in shock. How could his friend say that? The princess was upset! And he'd just told her to quit crying because it was annoying! What was going on in Crow's head that made it seem like that was the thing to say?

"How dare you?" The Princess snapped, standing from her vanity for the first time since they'd entered the room, knocking the toy in her lap to the floor. "How dare you speak to the Princess of Merchant City like that!"

The pirate captain scoffed loudly, almost dramatically "Fat lot of good being princess is doing you, huh?" He sneered "Here you are, Princess of such a huge city, Princess of a country! But the idea of fulfilling your dream is hopeless. Really, what good comes of you being a Princess? That seems like a useless title to me. I feel sorry for you." Crow continued mercilessly.

"No, it isn't like that-"

"I have a dream to, you know." Crow cut her off. "A dream to find a mythical treasure, to unearth the secrets behind it. But it's hard… I've been looking for it for the longest time and only a month ago did I actually start getting anywhere with my search. But I'm getting closer, I'm certain of it." Crow paused to give the Princess a sincere, meaningful look.

"I'm certain because even when it was hopeless, I never gave up on my dream. I never lost hope. Even when it seemed impossible, I kept going." Crow's face softened "I'm just sorry you gave up hope so soon."

Crow turned his back the blonde girl, turning only to glance at Seto and motion him to go to the door. "We've done our part. We need to head back before the crew does something stupid like come in here after us." Seto frowned hesitantly, turning back to glance at the princess.

Her face was void of every emotion but what seemed to be shocked, having sunk back down onto her vanity seat. She seemed to be staring at them, or just Crow…but it was like her eyes weren't really seeing. Seto felt terrible leaving her like that, but deep down he knew Crow was right. There was nothing more that they could do.

Exiting the room one of the guards began leading them back to one of the entrances that led back into the plaza. All of the shops and such had closed for the day however and the guard was intent to see them out of the building just in case.

…Or at least he would have been intent to see them out of the building if the sound of clattering armor and shouting had not distracted him.

"What on Earth…?" The guard muttered, staring down the hall where the sound was coming from. Suddenly from around the corner there was a burst of color, followed by a burst of muted colors.

It was Mar, Zen, Toyo, Ren, and Sai getting chased around the corner by the guards.

* * *

The dungeons were not near as quiet as they had been the first time Seto and Crow had been imprisoned there just earlier that day. Maybe because it had just been the two of them, or maybe it was because Ren was yelling to be let out of her cell. Seto was pretty sure it was the latter.

"Ugh!" Ren let out a frustrated sigh, giving up on trying to get a guard to come over for the moment because her throat was starting to hurt. She sat down and shivered. She was most definitely not dressed to be in chilly temperatures like the dungeon seemed to create

"…You really need to work on being pirates." Mar commented from where he sat cross-legged in his cell two down from Ren.

"Shut up!" That was Toyo across from him "It's your fault we got caught in the first place!"

"I did not!"

"You said," Zen started, his annoyed voice coming from the cell a few to the left of Mar's "that if we could get into the plaza, you would know your way around."

"You lead us right to the guard's post!" Toyo shouted.

After Toyo sweet talked the librarian into letting them see the plans for the King's Plaza against her own suspicions, Zen had located a number of out-of-place looking paths that Sai pointed out did not go into the city proper. After getting a map of the city they found that many of them seemed to go far outside Merchant City limits and probably ended in smaller towns or safe houses. One of these roads ended in the city limits though and Mar had told them it was in the unofficially called Large Crystal district of the city.

The Large Crystal District was an almost appropriate name. It was very large indeed, but it was also one of the poorer districts according to Mar, whose shop was in the unofficially called Dappled Stone District. It was called the Large Crystal District due to the illegal mineral trafficking that went on, according to the merchant. The hidden passage itself was hidden under the remains of what Mar said used to be the aqueduct system for the district before it apparently collapsed. The hidden passage seemed to have been connected to the aqueducts and Sai suspected that the passage was probably used for moving secretly around the city by using the water system. Either way, it had gotten them into the palace where they came out into a lavishly decorated room. Mar had taken the lead from there, but…

He had been the reason they got caught. "It was an honest mistake!" Mar shot back defensively.

"A mistake that got us all thrown in here." Crow remarked from the cell across from Ren "Me and Seto had just gotten out, too. What are you guys all doing here anyways?"

"They had the bright idea to come and rescue you." This was a voice that Crow was not familiar with, it came from in front of him so whoever it was, their cell was next to Ren's.

"I see." Crow decided that after they go out he'd find out who she was. No point in interrogating her while they were locked up, after all.

"Thanks for trying, at least…" That was Seto, who was next to Mar's cell down farther from Crow.

"Seto don't thank them! They shouldn't have come in the first place!" The captain sighed "Whose bright idea was this, anyways?" He demanded.

For the first time since the group had gotten thrown down there it was completely silent. It was a nice change, in Crows opinion.

_click click, click clack, click click_

It also made it quiet enough so that it was possible to hear the tell-tale noise that both Crow and Seto associated with the guards. Slowly, the corner closest to the girl Crow didn't know began to brighten with the orange glow of torches, illuminating even the darkest corners of the dungeon and sending shadows into a crazy frenzy as they tried to avoid the cast off of light. A pair of guards rounded the corner into the hall that located their cells and the fire light gleamed off of the cell bars as they passed. Crow finally got a good look at the girl who he'd spoken to earlier and while she looked familiar he couldn't place her face. The guards passed both their cells quickly and Crow was left in the darkness waiting for his eyes to adjust back, watching as they illuminated the faces of his crew until they stopped outside the merchant's cell.

Hey! He could see Seto now!

"Mar Chent?" One of them, whom Crow was sure was the one who had been sent to fetch himself and Seto earlier, asked the cell's occupant gruffly. Mar nodded fervently.

"Yes! Yes, that's me!" A smile stole its way to his face "Did she send you? Did the princess send for me? She wants to see me?" His voice seemed just beyond the borderline of hysteria as he questioned the guards. Seto glanced to the side of his cell with worry. He'd had an inkling that Mar had really wanted to see the Princess, but he could have never guessed he was so desperate to see her. He did not want to even know how Mar was going to react to the princess not wanting to meet him, if the conversation with her was any indication.

The guards didn't answer any of the chicken haired merchant's questions as they went about searching the key ring to unlock his cell. Unlocking it, they pulled him out roughly and slammed the cell door shut behind him. The guards and their captive began walking forward again until their torchlight disappeared, turning into another hall of cells.

"He better put in a good word for us with the Princess." Ren said, walking over to the bars of her own cell. "I mean, after all the trouble that we went through, he owes us that at least." She grumbled, rubbing her arms to try and generate some warmth.

"Did you two manage to get her the letter?" Zen asked, his voice curious.

Seto bit his lip, trying to think of a reply. "We did, but…"

"She rejected it." Crow dead-panned.

"You're kidding!" Ren's shock was obvious in her voice "How rude. I would kill for a guy as loyal as Mar…"

In his cell, Toyo coughed awkwardly "So, does that mean he won't be able to get us out of here?" Toyo asked.

The question hung in the air for awhile. The answer was obvious to everyone present and there was a collective sigh.

"Probably not." Sai answered, voicing everyone's thoughts on the subject.

They were stuck down there.

* * *

Dawn in Merchant City shone on its inhabitants. Many were setting up shop for the day while others were already busy with business transactions. The Large Crystal district was almost literally alight already after late night mineral fusing went bad. The Dappled Stone district was a flurry of movement as people traversed it to get to other parts of the city or head to the King's Plaza before all of the good deals were gone. As the sun came up and witnessed all of this the city seemed to be bathed in light.

This light did not reach the King's Plaza dungeons.

Mar had not been sent back down that night and no guards had come for them. Very few of the group managed to get any sleep due the conditions of the dungeon, though both Toyo and Seto somehow managed to sleep through the night. Ren was too cold and could only get a few snatches of sleep before she woke again, Sai was in the same boat only being a little better off because of her coat. Zen was thinking all night, about what no one but he could be sure. Crow stayed up listening for guards so he could wake everyone up when they came for them. After they came for Mar, though, the pirate captain heard no more guards the entire night.

With the sun up the dungeon was significantly less dim, though. It could stand to be brighter certainly, but it was now possible to see the person in the cell across from you and not just their outline against the wall. Craning his head, Crow caught sight of Seto's turquoise coat and couldn't help but shake his head at the fact that he had managed to sleep during all of this. Seto had mentioned to him once that he could sleep anywhere and Crow was starting to see what he meant.

"So, how are things between you two?" Ren's whisper was easily heard in the quiet dungeon. The sudden noise startled the tired captain and he turned to see Ren staring at him intently from where she sat curled up by the cell bars. Or, as intently as a sleep deprived person could.

"What?" Crow asked, confused by the question.

"Between you and Seto, how are things?" Ren elaborated "You two were alone for almost the entire day, I refuse to believe you didn't make a move on him."

"Well I'm sorry to ruin your beliefs," Crow started to reply sarcastically "But I was kind of preoccupied on making sure we didn't get caught breaking into the home of a _King_."

"What about after you got caught?" The silver haired girl insisted "You said last night that you two had just got released when we got caught. So what about when you two were locked up?"

Crow's heated up faintly "Th-that's…that's none of your business Ren!"

Ren stared at him annoyed that he wasn't telling her everything. This was only disrupted by a yawn which forced her to close her eyes, and they didn't open again afterwards. Crow had to thank whatever mythical God was watching over him for that respite. The idea of Ren interrogating him for his relationship status didn't sit well with him. And she needed the sleep anyways.

"Something happened between you two, huh?" An amused feminine voice drifted across from the cell next to Ren's. Looking over Crow spotted the girl that had been caught breaking in with his crew. She was looking at him with a knowing smirk. The purple clad pirate glared at her.

"That really isn't your business." He stated, to which she rolled her eyes "Who are you anyways? What were you doing with my crew?"

"You're the Crow, the captain, then?" She asked curiously "Huh, I wasn't expecting some kid to be the captain of the big pirate ship in the bay." She mused out loud.

Crow twitched in agitation "You didn't answer my question."

"I guess that means Seto is the one locked up down by Zen and the redhead then…" The dark haired girl sighed "My name's Sai." She answered finally.

"And what exactly were you doing with my crew?"

"I met her at the library." Zen's voice quipped tiredly "She knew stuff about the Moon Tribe's Treasure so I let her tag along. Figured you'd want to meet her."

"Which got me arrested with the rest of you." Sai said with a sigh "But I guess it's not all bad." She flashed Crow a smile.

"Why do you say that?" He asked, casting her a suspicious glance.

"I mean, after all, I did get to meet the guy in charge with the mysterious star chart. That's worth getting locked up down here for any day."

There was a beat of silence after the eye-patched girl spoke as Crow digested what she had just told him. It was only a beat of silence because he found the appropriate response very quickly

"ZEN!"

The angry shout was enough to rouse Ren awake and bring Toyo to the forefront of being conscious again. Not that Crow particularly cared right then.

"You were supposed to keep that star chart hidden! What were you thinking letting some stranger see it? That's our only lead!"

"Calm down, would you?" Zen asked irritably "It's not like she did anything to it, we're after the same thing." Zen paused "And we both know that isn't our only lead, Crow."

Toyo blinked the sleep out of his eyes, frowning. "What are we talking about? What chart?"

"The star chart Zen was looking at in the library, I think…" Ren said uncertainly "That thing has to do with the treasure? But it isn't complete, and it's wrong."

Crow growled under his breath, tired and reaching his limit. "Would all of you just shut up!" He snapped. "Zen! Next time you speak like that will be the _last_ time you speak as the navigator of the Black Wing's ship. Understood?"

All eyes that could see him were staring at Crow, either in anger or in alarm. Zen scoffed, but he made no move to say anything more to his captain or anyone else. An uneasy, tense silence quickly filled in between all of the cells as no one was sure if it was safe to speak without Crow making another outburst. Crow pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on as he sat down on the cold, stone floor. Things just refused to go his way whenever he was in this dungeon, it seemed. He blamed the merchant for getting him stuck in here (twice) in the first place.

"…The chart might lead to the where the Moon Tribe's treasure is." A quiet, sleep-laden voice broke in, it's origin close to Toyo and Zen's cells. "I…helped make it. I'm the other lead." Crow's eyes darted to Seto's cell in a flash. The maroonette was sitting up close to the bars rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, clearly awake. Clearly having heard the entire commotion and what it was about. He caught Crow's eyes and shrugged. "Zen said we had to tell them sometime…and I don't want to be the reason-" He yawned "…you guys argue."

"Seto…" Crow sighed, knowing that his friend probably had a point. They needed his crew, their friends to know. It was unfair that they didn't. But telling them while they were all in prison hadn't been how he planned it…of course, he hadn't planned it at all. He'd been avoiding thinking about a way to tell them. "Yeah, that's pretty much the gist of it." The captain amended in defeat, taking his hat off to run a hand through his hair.

"Seto you-what, how does that even work?" Toyo demanded, confusion in his voice "You're the other lead? You helped make the chart? You aren't making sense!"

"Seto…" Ren shot Toyo a look that pretty much demanded that he be quiet while she spoke. "He said it rudely, but Toyo's right. You need to explain better."

_click click, click clack click clack, clack click clack click, click_

The sound of rushing metallic on stone cut the conversation short. Crow was starting to suspect that the guards were eavesdropping on their conversations, they way they kept interrupting them like this. They were torch-less as they rounded the corner, apparently only using them as a light source at night. It seemed there was a whole brigade of them today, Crow counted eight at the least. He couldn't see past a few of them until they dispersed going to individual cells.

The sound of locks clicking and turning echoed off the walls.

* * *

The walls decked in gold in red greeted the group as they were marched through the King's plaza, the second time for Seto and Crow. To Seto it didn't quite seem like all of the halls looked the same anymore, though. They color scheme was the same for every hallway they went through, but there were tells that set the halls apart. For instance, in the hallway that the guards had lead them through yesterday to meet the Princess had the gold statue of an owl that had interested Crow. Other halls had other fineries, and the hall they were currently in didn't have any that the turquoise clad boy recognized.

He turned to glance at Crow, who was looking at everything they passed with unhidden temptation. He sighed, hoping that Crow didn't take anything and get them thrown back in the dungeon. Ren and that other girl, Sai, were finally looking warmer.

Seto turned his head to look back the dark haired woman and an uneasy shiver went through him. Crow hadn't recognized her, but Seto wasn't sure he could have forgotten her if he'd tried. She was the girl they had passed the day before on their way to meet Mar. He'd passed it off before as a fluke and that he was tired, but now that he was getting a better look at her he was certain. Her body was pale, much more so than it was when he saw her in his right eye, almost as if all the blood had been drained from her. Her body was littered with marks, dashed lines and numbers that looked as if they had been drawn with intent, what that intent was the boy did not know. But even that was not the oddest thing. What made him uneasy about this girl, Sai, was not about what he saw but what he didn't.

Sai did not have a fire surrounding her.

End Chapter

Hmm…let's see, how many holidays have I missed wishing you guys? I don't even want to know -.-

I don't really have any comments about this chapter, shockingly. It's certainly a long one though, which I hope makes up a little bit for my absence. I'm not exactly fond of how it came out...

Yay for cliff-hanger? =D Probably not. I like ending on cliff-hangers, they make the beginning of the next chapter so much easier to come up with. I finally have a semi-concrete plot down though!

But gasp! Revelations! How will this turn out?...I'm still working on that~

On that note, reviews are much loved, tips are adored because I would love to know if there are ways I could improve in the future. If I've made any mistakes, feel free to point them out.

Until we meet again!

~Sleepy ;D


	24. In which lots of running happens

There was only the warning of a brief feeling of leather brushing his fingertips before Seto was suddenly pulled forward, stumbling to regain his balance. Steady on his feet, Seto glanced down at the leather clad hand entwined with his before tiredly looking up to meet the owner's bemused eyes. Seto wondered if Crow recognized Sai, that she was the girl that they had passed only a few days ago, the one he had steered so far away from as they walked past. Crow was usually much better at remembering faces then he was, after all.

"Do you know her?" Crow asked in a hushed sort of whisper, almost conspiratorially as he glanced back at the eye patch wearing girl. Sai was eying the walls and the treasures that lined them, only taking her attention off of the glittering items when Zen tried speaking to her. Seto glanced back too, an uneasy feeling coiling deep in the pit of his stomach as he watched the two interact. He hated to admit it, but the red haired boy was incredibly suspicious of her. He'd been more or less half awake when Zen had explained how she had found herself breaking into the palace with their friends, and something hadn't set quite right hearing it. It seemed like too big of a coincidence, that she just happened to be in town when they were, and that she just happened to meet Zen at the library.

Maybe he was just tired from two nights in jail, and Sai not having flames may have made him more suspicious of her intentions, but he honestly did not trust the woman.

"We passed her..." Seto whispered back, looking ahead again as the guards continued to lead them through the carpeted halls of the palace towards an unknown destination, "In the morning, while we were going to meet Mar. Remember?"

Crow frowned and brought his open hand up to his chin thoughtfully, searching his memories of the past two or so days that they had been in Merchant City. About a minute passed, and he snapped his fingers in realization, "She was that sleazy looking girl that was hanging out by the pub!" He whispered quickly, shaking his head at the fact he hadn't remembered sooner "How didn't I recognize her sooner?" The pirate pondered quietly, and after a moment of silence he shot Seto a suspicious, narrow eyed look.

"And how did you recognize her? Did you see something you liked when we passed her or something? Was it the short shorts? Or was that obnoxious coat of her's a turn-on?" He asked accusingly, leaning in close to Seto's face with an unwavering stare. The maroon haired boy blushed under the scrutiny and the sudden close proximity of their faces "I bet it was her coat," Crow continued on "You've always seemed to have a thing for bright colors. Explains what you wear, at least." He commented dryly, lifting up Seto's arm to put emphasis on the boy's own turquoise coat.

Seto looked away from Crow's cat-like eyes red faced. "Itss, i-it's nothing like that, C-Crow!" Seto stammered out, peeking out from under his bangs to see the pirate with a teasing smirk on his face, and an eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"Oh?" Crow asked, his trade-mark smirk slowly spreading across his lips as he leaned back to a less stifling distance "So is there some other reason that you remember her?" Crow asked, and for a moment his smirk lessened "Something 'strange' I can't see?" He asked quietly, giving Seto's hand a meaningful squeeze. Seto hesitated a moment and glanced back at Sai. Zen was saying something to her in a hushed tone that Seto couldn't hear over something Ren was harshly whispering to Toyo, but as if feeling eyes on them, Sai glanced their way.

Turning back quickly, Seto looked at Crow and gave a quick nod. Crow nodded back, a carefully hidden look on his face that told that he was processing this information and how to best deal with it. The purple clad pirate looked away from his friend to watch the backs of the guards as they approached a pair of large, imposing wooden doors. Engraved swirls that were perfectly mirrored on each side were splayed out almost chaotically covering the entrance in a way that almost seemed purposeful. Inlaid silver glinted at them from the depths of the carving, the only silver that Seto was sure he'd seen since entering the palace, giving the doors a near mystical quality.

The guards stepped away from the group and noiselessly opened the doors, revealing what lay beyond. All the whispering, the hushed conversations, stopped as the crew stared in awe at the room they were being led into. Large, stone columns much like the ones in the bazaar that had first greeted Seto and Crow when they entered the plaza circled the room, between them pictures carved in silver were set into the walls that looked to be made of marble. Set into the back of the room was the throne, carved out of a metal that Seto was not familiar with that look silver, but reflected gold. But even all of this was not what had awed the group as they walked in.

Above them was erected the glass dome that could be seen miles out into the sea. The morning rays of the sun cascaded through the glass panes that lit the silver pictures on the sides of the room with iridescent light. As they were urged forward into the room, they even passed through a few scattered, tiny rainbows that vanished as soon as the light that created them was disturbed.

Seto found himself in awe of the King's wealth for the first time since they'd arrived, finally being able to fully appreciate it fully without a certain pirate being a worrying, annoying distraction in his mind.

They stopped suddenly and the aforementioned pirate's still tight, but comforting, grip on his hand stopped him from continuing forward. The rest of the group continued walking forward until they were no longer in pairs, but standing in something more of a unified group in front of the throne. Seto glanced carefully around at all of the faces, wondering what they were thinking. Ren was standing tall as if in defiance, her face stern although her hands were shaking. Toyo and Zen were standing close to her, their postures loose and calm as if this was a normal occurrence for them to be a part of them (which it probably was).

Sai (worryingly) was standing aloofly behind Crow with her arms crossed, looking almost bored.

And Crow...

The pirate captain was standing sternly, arms crossed and shoulders at ease. He was staring passively straight ahead. He suddenly seemed much older to Seto, and the boy was once again reminded that Crow was, in fact, the captain of a pirate ship.

Sitting in front of them on that fancily carved throne was not the stereotypical sort of king you expect from most fairytale stories. The man sitting in front of them was not portly in the slightest, built leanly but strongly with broad shoulders. His face was slightly hollowed with age and somewhat long, but the eyes that were staring at them from that wizened face were bright and alert. He was not blond like his daughter, though maybe he had been long ago. His hair was as dark as Crow's and flecked with gray and white further showing that he was quickly gaining years. His hair idly reminded Seto of ash just after the fire has been put out.

Standing dutifully silent next to him was none other than the Princess, dressed in a dark blue dress that was beautiful, but did not compliment her. Her face was oddly somber and almost emotionless, like it had been when Seto and Crow had crashed into her room when they were delivering the letter from Mar.

Worry sprang up in the maroon haired boy's chest.

"Pirates!" One of the guards started harshly from the side of them "Do you not know who you stand before?"

"This is the King of Merchant City, show your proper respect!" The guard on the other side of them ordered.

For a moment no one moved, until Seto felt a tug on his hand. He glanced to the side where Crow had been previously standing and was met with empty space. Confused, Seto felt another tug on his hand and looked down. Much to his shock, that was where he found Crow. Kneeling before the King. Crow was looking up at him from the corner of his eyes, and with them motioned downwards. Clumsily, Seto too fell to the ground kneeling, and the rustle of cloth behind him alerted him that the others were following the example.

A moment of quiet passed before a deep, carrying voice spoke "Stand, pirates." Crow stood up immediately, nearly dragging Seto up with him. Seto stared in slight wonder at his friend before he turned his gaze back to the King, who was watching them carefully.

"You are here under charges of breaking into my home on multiple accounts, threatening the princess, and aiding someone with ill intent towards the princess gain entrance. How do you plead?" The King asked.

"Not guilty." Crow replied evenly, his gaze flickering to the princess before they were back on the man accusing them "We made no threats towards your princess, and we did not aid someone who wanted to hurt her." Crow said, his eyes narrowed "We were nothing but cordial toward her, and the man we helped might have been obsessive with seeing her, but he meant her no harm."

The king stared at them silently, as if he was considering Crow's words before he made a motion to the guards. "Take them back to their cells." He ordered. Seto's eyes widened and he felt a hand grab his arm.

"Hey!" That was Ren. Turning his head sharply in surprise, he saw Ren struggling in the grip of another guard. Toyo and Zen were already being hauled back towards the way they'd come in. Sai was dragged somewhat as her guard and the guard holding Ren began towards the door. Turning his head again towards Crow he saw the pirate's teeth bared at the King before he was pulled out of view.

"On what charges?" He shouted, pulling against the guard that had a tight grip on his shoulders and was trying to pull him back.

The King gave a simple, smug smile "You're pirates, do I need a reason?" He asked, reaching over and taking his daughter's almost limp hand in his "Besides, my daughter is getting married tomorrow and I think she would feel much safer if a threat such as yourself and your crew were far away from her joyous festivities. Do you not agree, my sweet?" The princess hesitated for a moment, her eyes locking with Crow's before she glanced away, nodding.

Crow glared at her in disgust and spat as the guards pulled him back. That glare stayed fast on his face even as he was taken from the room, the last image seen being the King standing from his throne, watching the doors close with finality.

* * *

It was annoying, really, that Crow was becoming accustomed the dimness and chill of the King's Plaza dungeon. Infuriating, almost. The guards had just left them again and the cell arrangements had once again changed. For instance across the room kneeling was a familiar face with maroon hair and a vaguely familiar blue, short sleeved shirt.

For an even bigger instance across the room where the familiar face of Seto was kneeling was who he was kneeling next to, shirtless aside from Seto's coat now covering him, beaten and bruised, sandy haired and unconscious on the floor.

Mar was also sharing a cell with them, and he was fairing much worse than when they had last seen him.

Seto had been attending him since they had been tossed back down here and the man was, thankfully in Seto's opinion, showing signs of life. Seto was once again without his bag and was struggling trying to find a way to cover Mar's injuries, and though he kept calling out trying to reach Zen or one of their other friends for advice on the situation, it seemed that they were too far out of ear shot to hear.

Crow was thinking, sitting behind Seto leaned up against the wall. You could almost say he was fitting the pieces of this puzzle the merchant seemed to be a part of together. Going through town when they had arrived they hadn't heard any sort of news about a wedding, which was odd considering the Princess getting married would have been big news especially if the day itself was so close. They would have seen much more preparation going on in the plaza, the bazaar probably would have been shut down so they could get ready for all the people who would inevitably show up for the occasion. Security had been shockingly lax in retrospect for it being two days before the Princess's wedding.

Crow breathed out a sigh, "Seto, do you have any idea what you got us dragged into?"

Turning back to look at him, the boy in question looked at Crow in confusion, before he frowned warily "...Y-you're not going to start that again, are you?" He asked hesitantly.

Crow rolled his eyes and stood up from where he sat, shaking his head. "No, I was just asking." He answered, walking over and standing next to his friend, looking down at the merchant. "Do you have any idea what's going on?" Crow asked.

Still confused, and even more unsure of where Crow was going with this, Seto shook his head. "What do you mean, Crow?"

The purple clad pirate knelt down, eyes scanning the body beneath the turquoise coat before he turned to look at Seto. "The King doesn't like Mar, you understand that at least, right?"

Seto nodded at this, and Crow continued "Right, and so what would you do if someone you didn't like started proclaiming his love for your daughter, and she was happy to go along with it?" Bemused, Seto shook his head not understanding. Crow sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose "Seto, did you see anyone preparing for a wedding when we got here two days ago?"

"No." Seto replied.

"Hear anything about a wedding while we were in town?" Crow asked.

Again, Seto shook his head "No..."

"Do you see the connection?" Crow asked.

"So Mar and the princess are in love...but the King doesn't like that." Seto said to himself, thinking "There's a wedding tomorrow, even though there was no news about it..."

Crow grinned slightly "C'mon, get that slow, pretty little head of yours working, you're almost there."

Seto shot him an un-amused look. "I'm not slow." He shot back indignantly.

Crow sighed dramatically "You missed the important part of that," He pointed out "I also said pretty, you missed that."

Seto rolled his eyes "Y-yeah, like that's much better."

Sighing again, Crow shook his head. "So, did you figure it out yet?" He asked.

Frowning, Seto nodded "I think so." He answered "The King didn't want Mar marrying the princess, so he beat him up and locked him up down here...and made it so that he would never get a chance to marry her by making her marry someone else as soon as possible, right?" Seto asked, a little sadly.

Crow ruffled his hair and gave him a comforting smile "That's the gist of it, yup." He answered "Depressing, but that's how nobility go about things. They take someone they don't like, beat them up, and throw'em somewhere dark where no one can find them."

"Then why are we down here?" Seto asked "Because we tried to help Mar out?"

"Pretty much." Crow shrugged, ringing an arm around Seto's shoulders and pulling him close "We knew what the real story was and it'd be dangerous to let that get out, it's easier to just lock us up too." He explained.

Seto was quiet after that, and Crow maneuvered so that they were both sitting down before their legs cramped up from kneeling so long. He knew Seto was probably having a difficult time swallowing the explanation he'd given him. The pirate very much doubted that Seto was versed at all in how things were done when it involved royalty, being mostly secluded with that old man of his for all that time. Crow knew, though. And he knew it was hard to accept, but that was just how things worked. Seto wasn't going to like it, just like Crow was disgusted by it, but there wasn't anything that they could do.

There was a sudden weight on his shoulder, and the pirate wondered if all the thinking had tired Seto out before he heard the boy speak "You were...y-you were pretty cool, earlier." Seto said quietly, shyly not looking at Crow "When you were talking to the King, I-I mean."

Blinking in surprise at the sudden, out of nowhere compliment, Crow grinned and hugged Seto closer "Well of course I was." He bragged "Who the heck do you think I am?"

Seto turned his head and looked at Crow, smiling a little "The Captain of the Black Wing pirates?" He supplied helpfully, making Crow roll his eyes.

"Of course! There's no question about it." He stated grinning "Or did you forget or something?" Crow joked,

There was a pause. "I-I...I think I do, s-sometimes." Seto answered, turning his head back to a more comfortable spot of the pirate's shoulder "Y-You, Toyo, Zen, the crew...I-I think I forget sometimes that you're all supposed to be out pillaging villages, or making deals at shady ports, or drinking rum."

Crow scoffed "You read too many stories, Seto. Not all pirates go around destroying villages and making a big deal when the rum is gone." The young captain corrected rolling his eyes.

Seto laughed quietly "I know, I know." He said "...But you guys don't even seem like you do that kind of stuff ever. The crew mentioned you used to before..." Seto stopped, not sure if he should continue.

"Before Captain Raven died." Crow shot him a look "Right? That's what they said."

Seto nodded "...Yeah."

Crow ran a hand under his hat and through his hair and was quiet. Suddenly, though "Do you know what Captain Raven asked me to do before he died? His last dying wish?" Crow asked, staring plainly at Seto when the boy turned to look at him. The maroon haired boy shook his head. He had a faint idea about what it was, but Crow had never our right told him. He didn't talk much about Captain Raven unless prompted.

"He asked me to look for the Treasure of the Moon Tribe." Seto had been expecting that answer "He made me promise to look for it, and to keep looking for it until I found it. It became my dream to fulfill his final request." The look on Crow's face grew softer as he added "There isn't exactly room for pillaging villages and getting drunk when you're spending time on something like that, Seto." Crow said softly.

"Crow..."

"So even though we don't usually act like it, Seto," Crow interrupted "You have to remember that we are, in fact, the blood thirsty pirates that should be inhabiting your nightmares."

Seto was honestly not sure if he should laugh at that or take his friend seriously.

He was also not given that much time to think about it as a quiet groan erupted from the floor next to them.

Crow poked the body of the merchant with his foot, causing the man to wince "Hey, you awake?" He asked loudly, in case Mar was in fact not awake and hoping the loud voice would rouse him.

Another groan, and Mar was sitting up, Seto's coat falling off in the process and landing on the floor in a small swish of air.

"Are you...are you alright?" Seto asked, concerned. Mar looked at him blankly, which caught the teen off guard. In the entire time he'd been speaking to the man, there was always some sort of emotion on his face. Always, whether it was joy, or unhappiness, or even that look her got in his eyes when he was playing up his merchant persona. His face was just...blank, void of any sort of emotion.

Mar shrugged in the end, shook his head, and shrugged again.

"Make up your mind, would you..." Crow complained under his breath, not sure how to respond to the state the merchant was in either. "What happened to you, anyways? You look like death warmed over..."

Mar looked at him dryly.

Seto rolled his eyes and found the power to ignore Crow and his mini-commentary, turning his attention back to the merchant. "What happened, Mar?"

Mar was quiet for awhile and Seto wondered if he had somehow not heard him, or if he was just not in the mood to talk about it, before a voice cracked through those lips.

"They told me I was going to see the Princess..." Mar started quietly, running a hand through his hair before flinching as he brushed a nasty bump hidden beneath his hair. "That's...that's what they told me, they told me I'd finally get to see her..." Mar repeated shakily.

Crow shot Seto an honestly concerned look. "B-But then...they just tossed me down in front of the King..." Mar continued, wrapping his arms around himself "Told me to get out of his castle, stay away from his daughter. Threatened me. I told him I'd do anything for her...anything to see her just once..." A sob wracked the merchant's body. Seto reached out carefully to try and comfort him, but Crow stopped him with a shake of his head and lead him to the other side of the room.

"He's probably in shock." Crow explained solemnly as he guided Seto to sit down beside him. "Something like what they did…it'll probably be awhile before he comes around." The pirate captain tightened his grip on the maroon haired boy, scowling. "Having something he cared so much ripped right out of his hands like this…"

"How could they do that?" Seto asked quietly.

Crow shook his head. "I don't know Seto." He answered "I really don't know…"

Looking over to where Mar sat, head hung and shaking with cold and tears, Seto felt his heart wrench.

Hours passed and Mar's condition didn't improve, though Seto continually checked on him, he wouldn't speak. Seto ended up falling asleep on Crow's shoulder after awhile as it got later, or felt like it got later, and the merchant was left alone as Crow began to drift to sleep.

* * *

_chicnk chink_

The sound echoed loudly in the silent dungeon, the sound of metal hitting against metal. It was this sound that awoke Crow from his slumber. Cracking an eye open, he tried to sit up from where he had slumped against the wall to find that Seto had found his chest to be a resting place. And as Seto was asleep, and in such a position, Crow couldn't find it in himself to move the maroonette and tried to scan for where the sound might have been coming from where he was stuck.

Mar, it looked like, had finally and completely passed out and Crow hoped for Seto's sake that the man wasn't dead or something. So where was the sound coming from? It was coming from somewhere in their cell, he could tell...Crow turned his attention away from the merchant and squinted through the dimness at the cell bars. There was a figure there, a rather small figure that looked maybe a little taller than Ren. There was a scraping sound, metal against metal, as the figure tried to push something into the lock and found that they were forcing in the wrong thing.

There was a jingle of metal against metal that sounded distinctly like keys as the figure seemed to fumble for something before there was a sudden burst of light. It was a match, and the figure holding the match was cast in its glow as her blond hair was illuminated by the fire in an odd sort of glow. The match went out quickly and she was forced to strike another as she looked for the right key.

Another spark and the princess was re-illuminated by the tiny fire as she fumbled with the ring of keys clasped in her hands.

"You lost, Princess?" Crow asked, startling the girl and causing her to drop the match.

"...You, you're that pirate, aren't you?" She asked "The one who confronted me in my room?"

"Wow, I'm so happy you remembered me." Crow sarcastically said, low enough to not wake anyone in the cell up, but loud enough for her to hear "You here on a guilt trip or what?" He asked.

Another match lit up the princess's face as she glared at him, searching the key ring again before settling on one that looked correct "No, I am not here on a 'guilt-trip', or what have you. Is it not obvious that I'm releasing you?" She asked, pulling the key chain back close to the match after her previous key choice was not correct.

"Yes, yes, letting us go while we're all asleep. How nice of you." Crow commented "What time is it, anyways?"

The match went out and there was the sound of grinding, scarping metal before another was lit "It is early evening." She answered.

Crow raised an eyebrow "Oh really? Shouldn't you be busy doing other things then? I mean you're getting married tomorrow, surely there are preparations you need to be a part of."

The princess flinched at the comment and said nothing. Crow hummed "Or are you getting cold feet all of a sudden, and hoping a jail break'll halt the wedding?" The pirate questioned.

"It's none of that!" The princess snapped, throwing her arms in exasperation. The commotion caused a few of the sleeping to stir in the dark "I'm down here...I'm down here because..." There was a beat of silence "...I'm down here because you were right, you stupid pirate!"

Seto stirred and sat up slightly, leaning on Crow's chest half asleep. "You said that even though I was princess, I couldn't do anything...I couldn't even fulfill my own dream...but I'm going to change that!" She stated "I'm making my own choice right here, right now!"

Finally, there was a sound from the other side of Crow and Seto's cell. Mar sat up shakily as the princess struck another match, searching for the key to their cell.

"Princess..." He gasped, clumsily rushing to his feet and nearly tripping as he hurried to the bars.

There was a click in the lock and the princess through the door open with a loud clang. "Mar..." The princess began tearing up. The merchant caught her in a tight embrace, holding her close.

Crow helped Seto stand and walked over to grab the drowsy boy's coat. They exited the cell, passing the two lovers. The princess had at least thought ahead. Seto's bag was back for instance and there was a change of clothes that looked like they would fit Mar. Kneeling down, the pirate grabbed the keys from where the princess had dropped them and glanced around.

"Any idea where everyone else is?" He asked, noting that they weren't as close as he thought they'd be. When they'd been brought down the guards had placed them in cells that were farther away than Crow had realized at first. It seemed that the rows of cells on both sides of them were all empty.

"I-I think they're a bit farther down the hall." Seto piped up from behind him, slinging his bag over his shoulders. "I think we came from that way."

"We should probably find them fast." Crow said, grabbing Seto's hand and pulling him in the direction the maroon haired boy had indicated "The Princess wasn't exactly stealthy; I wouldn't be shocked if all that noise woke up a guard snoozing on duty."

* * *

Their footsteps echoed on the stone as they hurried through the dungeon, Crow's ungloved hand clasped tightly in Seto's. They had both agreed that it would be much easier to locate the rest of their crew and Sai this way instead of running around blind and it helped keep them out of the ways of guards that had, shockingly, been alerted by the commotion. Crow also realized that it was significantly easier to navigate with Seto's white vision in his right eye. It wasn't dark at all, much like it hadn't been back in Ren's shop in Garnet, and the pirate captain could see every turn and corner and cell mapped out in white.

"There!" Seto whispered suddenly, pointing ahead to a cell that still looked a few halls away. Sure enough, three familiar fires were blazing intently. Crow frowned.

"If those three are there, then where's eye-patch girl?" The pirate asked, leading them around a corner.

"She…might be there, I don't know." Seto admitted. The teen paused. "Do you, do you remember earlier, when you were asking why I remembered Sai? And if you asked if it was something you couldn't see?"

Crow frowned. "Yeah, that wasn't that long ago. I'm not gonna forget that fast."

Seto shook his head slightly, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at his friends reply "Well, you were right. It was something that you couldn't see that made me remember her." Seto explained.

This time, Crow rolled his eyes "I know that." Seto turned his head and blinked at him, looking surprised "You told me that when we were on our way to the throne room, remember?" Crow asked with a smirk, slowing their pace down slightly.

"O-Oh." Seto blushed.

"So?" Crow looked down at him curiously, trying not to get caught up watching the beautiful, spinning fire ball in Seto's left eye. "What's so strange about her?"

"…She doesn't have a fire."

Crow's feet stopped moving. Letting go of Seto's hand, he looked the boy in the eye. The pirate looked like a mixture of confusion and concern. "What do you mean, she doesn't have a fire?" He asked in a hushed tone "I thought everything had a fire."

Seto shook his head as equally bewildered by the prospect as Crow was "That's what I thought, too. But when I look at her, all I see are these weird looking designs all over her. Nothing else." Seto frowned. "It's the first time I've ever seen someone alive without a fire…"

Crow took his hand again and began walking slowly "So dead people don't have fires?"

"No…not that I've ever seen, at least." The maroon haired boy answered following the pirate down the corridor of cells.

"Huh…" The pirate mused "So are saying eye-patch girl is like a ghost or something?"

"I-I never said that!" Seto huffed. Crow let out a small chuckle, leading the boy around a corner as the fires got closer.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Crow paused, and added slightly quieter "But really, I think a ghost would be better than anything else she might be, don't you think?" Crow asked, thinking back to that monster back in Ribon and the thing that had once been his first mate, Vulture.

"Well, yes, but-"

"Seto! Crow!" Ahead of them, they could hear Toyo's familiar voice calling from a somewhere further down the aisle of cells "Hey! I can hear you whispering! Where you at?"

Crow and Seto exchanged glances briefly, before they both let out an amused chuckle and picked their pace back up, almost running forward towards the cell where they had heard the red head's voice.

"Aha!" Well, Toyo looked triumphant when they came to a stop outside the cell "I knew something was up when the guards started running around."

Standing up from where he was in a corner, Zen joined his red haired best friend at the bars with a small, relieved smile "We assume that you two are the cause of that?"

Both Crow and Seto shook their heads. "You can thank the Princess for that." Crow explained, rifling through one of his pockets where he stashed the keys. With his other hand still clasped around Seto's he struggled slightly with looking for the right key on the ring.

Both crew mates blinked in shock. "Seriously?" Toyo asked, giving a low whistle of amazement "Wow, didn't see that coming. Did she let you guys out?"

"Yeah. Hey, are Ren and what's-her-name in there with you?" The pirate asked, mostly wondering if Sai was in there, as he found the right key and shoved it into the lock.

"Yeah, I'll go wake them up." The red haired pirate answered, turning back into the darker part of the cell and nearly disappearing into the dimness (save for his hair).

Zen took a step back from the bars as the door was pulled open "What exactly possessed the princess to let the two of you out?" He asked, casting Seto a glance.

This didn't go unnoticed by Crow, who tensed beside Seto. "M-Mar was in the cell with us." The maroon haired boy explained hurriedly "She wanted to save him, we just sort of happened to be in the same cell as him, is all. Although, s-she did have my bag.."

"The merchant was locked up down here?" Zen asked curiously "Well, that's not really that surprising, considering how the King spoke of him…" The silverette commented, rolling his eyes.

Behind him came three familiar forms from the dimness, two of which looked slightly ruffled by sleep. Ren let out a yawn stepping out of the cell first, casting Crow and Seto a small glance, mostly at their interlocked hands. Seto noticed this and blushed, but Crow pulled him closer. As the rest of the crew and Sai stepped out the cell he was sure it was to make room, but glancing up at his friend and seeing a smirk forming on his face made him think that that was probably just an excuse.

_click**clack**clickclickclickclickclick**clack**click_

The sound of fast metallic footsteps hit their ears long before the familiar gleam of torchlight began reflecting on the corner that Seto and Crow had come around just minutes before.

Unanimous curses were uttered by Crow and Toyo before the group started running, Crow nearly dragging Seto along behind him. At some point Toyo got a hold of Ren's hand (to her protest) to make sure she kept up and Zen fell back to keep an eye on Sai.

"Tell me you two have an escape plan!" Ren asked as the guard clatter became louder behind them.

"N-Not really!" Seto squeaked.

"We didn't exactly plan that far ahead!" Crow said gruffly, leading them around a random corner at the end of the aisle of cells "Anybody got any bright ideas!"

There was a beat of verbal silence (because when you were being chased by guards clad in metal on stone floors, it really wasn't that quiet) before Sai calmly asked "What about the way we came in? That secret passage?"

"That's right!" Zen agreed, realization in his voice "That heads right back into the city; we could probably get the guards off our tails at least going that way."

"Alright, we'll do that. But I think we need to get out of this maze of cells first." Crow said. And he had a point, it seemed that they had been running and running, but the scenery hadn't changed one bit, almost as if they were going in circles. The pirate was almost sure that the dungeon was bigger than the plaza above it "Seto! Looks around for any signs that could lead us upstairs!"

Seto nodded affirmatively, though as he started glancing around he wasn't quite sure what he should look for. He was sure his friend meant for him to look for them in his white vision, but what on Earth could indicate stairs? He wanted to ask Crow, but it seemed that right then the pirate captain was more focused on what direction they were going and which way the guards were coming. The maroon haired boy had no doubt that it was a daunting task as he could see the guards around as well, but he was sure they were increasing in number as more came down to the dungeon.

Seto blinked. That was it! Seto scanned around them quickly, trying not to trip as Crow sharply brought the group around another corner. If the guards were coming downstairs to the dungeon, he was sure that if he concentrated he would be able to find where there were fires coming down or appearing seemingly out of nothingness in his vision. But look as he might, he didn't see the phenomenon he was looking for. Seto scowled slightly, and looked around again to double check. That had to be what he was looking for! It made the most sense, that there would be guards running down the stairs to come catch them. Briefly, his eye caught something.

"Crow!" Seto pointed to what seemed like a random angle, indicating the pirate should go that way "Look, over there!"

Crow made a small noise to indicate he'd heard him and the pirate glanced in the direction Seto was pointing. After a moment a smirk stole over his face "Nice eyes, Seto. Good work!"

Seto smiled despite himself, and despite the confused and utterly bewildered look the rest of the group was giving him. But he was happy with himself nonetheless for what he spotted. While it wasn't the image of guards running down stairs to help the other guards that were running after them, it was something much more out of place. Two guards standing still. If Seto was assuming right, which he really hoped that he was, the two guards that weren't running and chasing them were standing there for a reason. That reason, he was hoping, was that they were guarding the stairs.

Their footsteps echoed as Crow led them deftly towards their goal, taking turns where needed to avoid the guards. Luckily, although the dungeon was obscenely large, all of the cell aisles were straight which made choosing the correct paths none too difficult for the pirate. Even if they missed a shorter way while avoiding their pursuers, there was still a way to get where they needed to.

After several minutes of running and avoiding they found themselves turning into an aisle that was full of stationary torch light. Standing there dutifully was a pair of guards, whose shadows were cast elongated and distorted on the stairway behind them.

The two guards heard them immediately as them came closer. Letting go of Seto's hand, Crow snatched the bag off of his back and started rifling through it with a determined, to Seto's somewhat immediate embarrassment. The pirate found what he was looking for very quickly and pulled a sword of Seto's bag, deftly tossing it to Toyo before pulling out a knife to toss to Zen. Only a brief moment later he pulled his own sword out and shoved the bag into Seto's arms. Seto stared at it in confusion as the three pirates charged forward to meet the guards, leaving him and the girls standing there not sure what to do with no weapons.

"You three head up stairs!" Crow said, locking swords with one of the guards. "Get out of here and get to the ship!"

Seto started "But Crow, n-"

"Now!" The pirate ordered, parrying a blow as the guard pushed his weight down. "We'll meet up later." Crow jumped back as the guard lifted his sword to land a blow, and cast Seto a look that spoke volumes. "I promise."

Seto hesitated. He watched the pirate captain as he nimbly dodged the guard's sword and danced around him on the balls of his feet, never lingering too long in a spot. He gave a firm nod and turned to Sai and Ren behind him.

"Let's go."

* * *

The trio made their way silently about the carpeted floor of the King's Plaza. As Seto had correctly guessed, most of the guards had run downstairs to try and corner them in the dungeons. There was a significant drop in the number of guards up here, which the maroon haired boy counted as a blessing. Despite that though he slowed their pace in case, mainly so they had more time to look around and react.

"We could hear them coming in the dungeon." He'd explained to a very impatient Ren, who had thankfully not long ago quit trying him to go back down and help their three friends. He hadn't looked over at Toyo's and Zen's fight, but he was sure that in a two-against-one fight that the odds were very much in their favor. "Unless they're running you can hardly hear them up here, though."

Ren huffed irritably "And? They can't really hear us either if we run. Two of us are barefoot and your shoes are pretty much silent." She argued "Going faster seems a lot safer than going slower to me anyways."

Seto sighed, pausing to glance around corners as they came to a cross-way in the hall "But it's easier to know which way the guards are coming if we go slower…"

"How?" Ren demanded, narrowing her amber brown eyes suspiciously at him. Seto swallowed dryly, feeling his nerves start to prick under the intense gaze. He hadn't seen that look since they'd left Garnet. It was usually the look she pinned on him when she thought he was skimping on his duties under debt or that she gave people trying to jip her in the shop by selling fake items. It was honestly not a look he liked aimed at him by the silver haired girl.

"I-It-It just is." He managed out, darting his eyes away from that piercing gaze. He thought back to the conversation in the dungeon this morning. Seto still needed to explain everything to her. And Toyo and Zen. But this just wasn't the time or place to do it. "Um, um, anyways, do you two know the way to that passage?" He asked, quickly switching the topic off of himself.

Ren continued to glare at him. It was Sai who ended up answering "I think I can find it from here."

Seto glanced at her, feeling his earlier paranoia starting to rise up again. He forced a small, appreciative smile "Alright, lead the way." He was going to have to trust her for now.

And so the eye-patch wearing girl took the lead, putting them back at a somewhat faster pace. However, with Sai leading the way it made Seto's job of keeping an eye out for guards much simpler and he didn't quite mind. He directed her away from halls that he saw guards lurking in by suggesting different ways, though he found it odd that she was so quick to comply with his directions. The maroon haired boy made no mention of it though because he could absently still feel Ren's eyes staring at him and didn't want her to start asking more of the questions he was certain she had.

"Hey, Sai, could you turn right up here?" He asked suddenly, thinking that he might have seen something important.

Sai glanced back at him with a raised eyebrow "Yeah sure, why?"

"I-um, I h-heard something." He covered quickly. By the look on her face she didn't look like she bought it "It sounded like Mar."

Not only Mar, but he'd seen the Princess's fire too, he thought. As well as the fire of at least three guards, but he decided to leave that bit out. He was sure if he mentioned that Sai would ignore his request, and he knew for sure that Ren would absolutely refuse. She would especially refuse if she knew the Princess was that way, too.

Thankfully, the blue eyed girl didn't question him beyond that and turned where he asked. The directions must have seemed completely random to her, he thought. Right, right, left, straight, left, straight…but she took every direction in stride. Honestly, it was kind of unsettling to him that this near complete stranger seemed to trust his judgment so quickly.

As they rounded another corner, the maroon haired boy realized that this time he could actually hear the merchant's voice talking, though he couldn't quite make out the words. Seto could also hear the faint clicking sound of the guard's armor and paused, remembering that neither he nor Sai, nor Ren had any sort of weapon. Stopping, he quickly scanned around the hall they were in for anything he could use as a weapon. His eyes landed on something that seemed…rather unconventional, and very out of place it seemed in the king's Plaza.

Seto walked over to it and picked it up off the rack it had been sitting on.

"Is that…a butterfly net?" Ren asked

Sure enough, in Seto's hand was an old, worn looking pink butterfly net. The net itself seemed to have fallen out long ago leaving behind only the moderately thick metal ring that held it. It looked a little bit fragile with age, but it had a long reach that surely made up for it as long as Seto was careful.

Seto scratched his nose nervously "Well, it's better than nothing, isn't it?" He asked "I bet this thing packs a bigger punch than we're giving it credit for."

Ren let out a small laugh at his enthusiasm and smiled, for the first time since they'd regrouped back in the dungeon "Alright, alright." She conceded, walking past him to grab something off of one of the tables. The silver haired girl picked up what looked to be a flower, but upon closer inspection it was made out of a slightly pink stone. "This is supposed to be a water-lily, I think." The girl mused quietly, giving the stone flower a look over and testing its weight. She shot Seto a grin "Should work, right?"

Seto laughed nervously at her enthusiasm and looked over to see if Sai had picked anything up. With slight confusion he realized that she was empty handed. She quirked an eyebrow at his expression "What?"

"You don't have anything to defend yourself with…"

Sai rolled her eyes and gave a tiny smirk "I'm not worried." She said airily "You'll protect me, right?"

Seto blinked "Huh?"

The dark haired girl pouted "You won't, then? But you're a guy aren't you?" The girl paused, walking over to Seto to give him a look over "Though judging by appearances…"

Seto blushed "H-Hey!"

Both girls let out a laugh. Seto pouted indignantly at the two of them wondering when they had time to get so close, but he did prefer this to the tense silence that had been enveloping them for quite awhile.

A sudden commotion started somewhere ahead of them. Seto gripped the butterfly net in his hands and glanced at Sai and Ren. They both nodded firmly, and he couldn't help but smile slightly at that.

"Let's go." He said, for the second time that night. The trio took off running towards where the merchant and the princess were, towards the sound of clicking, metallic armor.

End Chapter

You know, this was nearly the last chapter for this arc. Nearly, but I needed some drama for next chapter, so NEXT chapter is going to be the last one for this arc. Finally.

Honestly, I wanna get through the next few arcs as soon as possible. I've been having so many ideas about the end it's not even funny, and thinking through how much (probably currently unnoticed) foreshadowing gets explained, and other various plot important things. But alas, there's still at least one arc left before that. I'm expecting to get another 20 or so chapters out of this story, at least. Probably.

Anyways! How was that for making you guys wait so long? This is nearly 8,000 words! I think it might be the longest chapter yet. And the story is officially over 90k words. How awesome is that?

Anyways! Thanks to all of those who read last chapter, and thanks to all of those who also reviewed last chapter. Seriously, your reviews tend to make my day. So as per normal, reviews are absolutely welcome and any helpful criticisms are definitely appreciated.

Until we meet again!

~Sleepy ;D


	25. My Pirate

His sword clanged to the ground, the cutlass just out of his reach as he was forced to his knees.

"Drop your weapons," the guard standing above Crow ordered, pressing his sword close to the pirate captain's neck for emphasis. In front of Crow behind the guard, stood Toyo and Zen surrounded by a group of armed guards with weapons poised to attack. All three of them were already in bad shape. The battle had not turned in their favor after Seto and the girls escaped up the stairs. The noise of their battle with the first two guards they encountered had made the guards within ear shot come running. Quickly outnumbered, the fight went downhill from there to where it was now.

The two crewmen hesitated, eying the guards with disdain before they glanced worriedly in their captain's direction.

Their weapons clattered to the ground.

In a rush of bodies, Zen and Toyo were forced to the ground in the same position as Crow, and their hands were bound. The blade still pressed against his throat, Crow sneered at the guard as he motioned for one of his men to restrain the purple wearing teen.

"Where is the rest of your crew?" The guard asked.

"Dunno what you're talking about." Crow answered with a smirk that was quickly replaced with a wince as the blade bit into his skin.

"Where is the princess?" The guard growled. This time the pirate didn't answer. Livid, the guard pressed the sword harder against the pirate's neck until, in the faint glow of torchlight, the outline of blood running down the blade was visible.

Suddenly it was pulled back and Crow was hauled onto his feet by another pair of guards.

"Take them back to their cells; make sure they are as far away from each other as possible. The rest of their group must have made it upstairs," the guard said, casting his eyes to the two, bleeding, unconscious guards that had been standing guard by the stairway. "Search the entire plaza. I don't care what you do with them when you find them, but make sure you bring the Princess back alive."

Crow felt panic hit him like a blow to the chest as he was dragged away. He struggled fruitlessly against the guards holding him.

_Seto._

* * *

The hall they entered ended in a dead end. Up against the back wall, Mar was standing defensively in front of the Princess with his arms stretched out as if to completely block any attacks that came their way. However, as far as could be told, he was completely unarmed unlike the three guards that stood blocking any sort of exit they might have had. As it was, they had no escape and their capture seemed almost inevitable.

The Princess was the first to notice them sneaking up behind the pack of guards, her eyes wide; with fear, surprise, or both Seto wasn't quite sure. It seemed that her already desperate grip on the merchant's back became tighter when she saw them, which only made Mar tense up ready to attack the guards. He seemed to have not noticed them yet, but neither had the guards. Silently, the trio came up from behind the group with their ill acquired weapons in hand. Finally, when they got close enough, Ren and Seto raised their 'weapons' ready to attack.

Mar took this moment to notice them and look surprised. The guards looked at each other puzzled before they began to turn their heads back. Seto and Ren took this moment to attack and slammed their respective weapons into the two closest helmeted heads.

Ren's was effective enough in knocking out the guard, though the lily statue suffered a large crack upon impact, and it was unlikely it would be able to take another hit like that. Seto's butterfly net only served to disorientate the guard with the loud echo caused by the strike to the somewhat hollow helmet. The third guard that had not taken a hit quickly composed himself from the surprise attack and drew his sword, swinging it immediately at Seto's head.

The maroonette reacted quickly, raising the butterfly net to block the blow. The blade nearly cleaved through the wooden shaft, shattering the wood almost completely upon impact. The guard pressed his weight against Seto causing the sword to sink deeper and deeper into the handle. The teen was almost sure that if he didn't do something soon that the butterfly net was going to snap and that blade was going to land straight in his chest.

In his moment of panic, something then… clicked in Seto's brain. He suddenly felt relaxed.

Seto collapsed his knees suddenly, causing the guard to fall forward. In a single, swift movement, the blue clad boy wrenched his improvised weapon free of the guard's sword and rolled away. The guard stumbled, nearly losing his balance due to the sudden momentum, and swung behind him blindly as he regained his balance. Seto barely dodged the blade as it swung close to his torso and raised his 'weapon' to counter attack.

Fully facing him now, the guard blocked the attack; further splintering the butterfly net's handle. The guard pulled back and struck forward again. This time Seto countered him and deflected the blade along the length of the butterfly net. The guard pulled back once again, and stared at Seto with a mixture of confusion and anger, like he couldn't believe he hadn't cut the boy down already. Foot over foot, they circled each other for a moment, their eyes locked on each other and watching for sudden movements. Foot over foot, until the guard made a sudden lunge forward, his sword aimed directly at Seto's gut.

The maroon haired boy jumped back, though not quickly enough as the tip of the sword just barely scratched the fabric of the shirt he had on. Having the opening he needed, Seto came in close to the guard and flipped the butterfly net around to the hilt before stabbing it downwards. He managed a hit on the edge of where the shoulder pads ended, where the skin of the man's neck started.

For a moment, the man simply looked dazed, his eyes wide and unmoving, until he collapsed to the ground in a heap.

Seto panted, the broken net still clasped tightly in his hand as he tried to regain his breath and his composure. He had no idea what had just occurred, or if he should be worried about it or thankful. Shaking himself out of his thoughts Seto knelt down next to the guard to check his pulse, relief flooding him as he found that the man was just unconscious and not dead. Carefully, he slipped the sword out of the man's hand for later use, gripping it in his other hand.

The boy turned as he heard the other guard crumple to the ground, Mar kneeling in front of the body with a sword in his hand and Ren standing behind, the lily statue broken completely in two and a triumphant look on her face. Seto couldn't help but smile at that a little.

Glancing around, he noted that the Princess had barely moved from her spot at the end of the hall, though she had collapsed to her knees where she had been standing. Seto had to muse (in a voice that sounded suspiciously Crow-like) that she wasn't used to so much excitement. Suspiciously he looked around for the other member of their group, only to find with a scowl that Sai had not moved either.

Turning to face her, he flat out said "You could have helped, you know." On his face was an uncharacteristic glare.

She stared at him for a few seconds, an eyebrow rising appraisingly, and replied with a simple "I didn't have anything to fight with."

Seto immediately opened his mouth with a retort. To tell her that she had had plenty of time to pick something up before they came into the hallway. To tell her that there were dozens of items around her that she could have grabbed and used. So many things he could have said raced through his mind that he could have said, but he stubbornly closed his mouth against them, his fists clenching around the weapons in his hands. This was not the time or place, he reasoned, to get into a fight with someone he was supposed be allying with. He was finding that since they'd arrived in Merchant City, it was never a good time for anything.

Sai blinked at his sudden silence, her single eye watching him before she smirked and commented. "Besides, you seemed to have it pretty well handled. Against a trained guard, at that."

"I know!" Seto jumped, hearing Ren pipe up off to the side of them "Seto, where'd you learn to fight like that? I never knew you knew how to do that stuff." The silver haired girl commented with a frown.

"C-Crow's been…teaching me." He answered slowly, hating that he was lying to someone he considered his best friend after Crow. The truth was Seto didn't have an answer for her. He had absolutely no training when it came to weaponry and usually he was either lucky or clumsy with a weapon at best. But this fight was different, and he had no idea what it was. His body had moved of its own accord and seemed to rely only on his reflexes. It felt as if he'd had a weapon in his hand his entire life "He wanted me to be able to protect myself in case something ever happened a-and he wasn't there." He finished explaining, even though it made his heart feel heavy in his chest.

This answer seemed to satisfy the silver haired girl and she nodded, turning to look at Mar, offering him a hand up. "You alright?" she asked.

Thankful for the help, Mar stood and hung the sword in his belt. "I'm alright. Thank you Miss," he said with a small bow. His attention was quickly deferred to the end of the hall as he rushed over to kneel by the princess. Ren nearly rolled her eyes.

"Are you alright?" He asked softly, helping the blonde to her feet. She was the same as Seto had seen her hours ago in the throne room, wearing the exact same dress. Her hair was messier now and the dress was wrinkled, probably from running from the guards.

The princess nodded, a smile gracing her lips as she said to the trio "Thank you, if you had not arrived when you had…"

Seto shook his head, not wanting to hear it "You don't need to thank us, really." He told her, giving a smile of his own. This seemed to catch the girl off guard for a moment as if she'd been expecting a different reaction. After a moment she relaxed and smiled back.

"The passage out was around here somewhere," Sai cut in, her voice somewhat grating on Seto's nerves as she walked over to join them.

Mar gave a nod, indicating with his head the dead end they were at. "It's right here," he said.

Ren frowned. "Why didn't you just use it when the guards cornered you?" She asked as the merchant walked over to the wall, running his hands over it as if searching for something.

"And let the guards follow us through?" He asked, his face brightening as he seemed to find what he was looking for. He pressed his thumb against the wall until a small square of it gave way beneath his touch. There was a loud click and a small panel of the wall close to the floor opened up before them.

Seto stared at it dumbly for a few seconds until Mar noticed. "What's up?"

The maroon haired boy blinked and let out a small, self conscious chuckle. "I guess when I heard 'secret passage' I was expecting s-something more…dramatic?" He said with a small laugh, scratching his head.

Mar laughed too. "Nope, nothing like that. How would you expect to hide it?" He asked, holding the door open as the princess got on her knees ducked her head through. Mar followed soon after, followed by Ren.

Seto hesitated, a sick feeling erupting in his stomach and chest. He turned back to look the way they'd come, searching around as a worried expression came to adorn his face. Where was Crow? And Toyo and Zen? They'd only been facing two guards, Seto hadn't realized it, but he'd expected them to have caught up by now. The sick feeling in the pit of stomach started to curl as he found himself worrying…what if something had happened? What if they needed help?

Seto found himself taking a step forward in that direction, but a sudden annoyed sounding voice caught him off guard with a "Where do you think you're going?" and he stopped.

Turning back he glanced at the voice's owner, seeing Sai standing in front of the panel glaring at him, tapping her bare foot against the carpet.

"The others should have caught up by now…" He responded, his concern evident in his voice. "W-What if something happened and they need our help?"

The dark haired girl rolled her visible eye and stalked over to where Seto stood, grabbing him by the sleeve of his shirt and pulling him in the direction of the secret passage. "They're pirates. They can take care of themselves, " she said shortly, letting go of his arm and shoving him towards their exit "They probably just got lost along the way or stopped to pick up something valuable, but Zen knows how to work the door. We need to do as your captain says and get the heck out of here."

And Seto found himself, once again, holding his tongue, though this time not from saying angry words. Their friends hadn't even made it up to this floor from what Seto could see, and it was almost as if he could feel that something was wrong. His white vision didn't extend to the dungeon below them, but he had seen what looked like guards appearing out of nowhere from the direction they had come. As it was the number of guards around them had increased again, which worried Seto to no end.

Sai sighed irritably, grabbing Seto again and pulling him, dragging him through the opening and closing it before the boy could even voice a complaint.

The small passage expanded into a stony, wet tunnel after a few minutes of walking. It was pitch black and they ended up setting fire to the hilt of the butterfly net to use it as a torch to use as a guide. The way it was splintered across the middle probably meant it was useless for fighting now anyhow and the wood was dry enough to burn, and Seto had a sword to use now anyways. Their procession was now moderately armed, three of the five of them equipped with swords; himself, Mar, and Ren who had re-appropriated hers off of the guard she had knocked out much like Seto had.

The tunnel was covered in moss and other various types of plant life that thrived out of the sun in these sorts of places, and Seto had to wonder when the last time anyone had been down there. The chill in the passage distinctly reminded him of the dungeons back in the plaza, which made him think of Crow, which set him off worrying again.

Thankfully, no one else in their little group seemed too apt to speak either, so he was allowed to indulge in his thoughts and his worries in peace until they came to a ladder at the end of the passage. Mar took the burning butterfly net and snubbed it into the ground, effectively putting the fire out until only faintly glowing embers were left. Single file they made their way up the ladder carefully and opened the hatch at the top, filling the small passage with light from the moon.

Sai was the last out of the broken down aqueducts, and by then, Seto was already surveying the area. "Where are we?" He asked curiously, not recognizing where they were. Certainly it wasn't an area Crow and he had managed to get to while they had wandered the city a few days ago.

"We're in the Large Crystal district," Mar answered. "Kind of a shady place, but probably safe for now…" He trailed off, as if not trusting his own words to that regard. It was quiet all around them and the moon high in the sky indicated that it was getting well past midnight.

"We should probably find one of these buildings to camp out in for the night," Sai said, beginning to walk forward.

Seto frowned, not moving. "Wouldn't it be better to go back to our ship for the night?" Seto asked.

Sai sent him a look, was silent for a brief few seconds before— "If you hadn't noticed, we just broke out of jail. And we helped kidnap a princess. Do you really think it's smart to go back to your ship right now and put the crew in danger?" She asked testily.

Seto flinched slightly at her tone, hanging his head marginally. Sadly, because he hated to admit it, Sai had a point. Really, she had a great point, and Seto had to agree with her, but part of him just wanted to go back to the ship, to feel the familiarity of Crow's bed and wake up in the morning somewhere comfortable and familiar for the first time in days. He knew it was selfish, but he couldn't help it.

"…So are a lot of these empty?" He asked finally, raising his head to address Mar, who was looking at him in what seemed to be sympathy. Again, he couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy as he looked at Mar and the Princess, holding hands and standing close. For the first time he really felt Crow's absence at his side and the familiar hand in his…

"Pretty much all the houses in this area are abandoned," Mar was explaining. "Some of them are used for hide-outs by traders, but I'm sure we can find one that's out of use right now," the merchant said cheerily.

The group mostly went silent again after that, splitting off to look for a suitable residence to set up in for the night. Besides Mar and the Princess, the rest of their group was not in a talking mood for various personal reasons. Seto knew his and found himself not really wondering about Sai's, but he had an inkling about why Ren had been so quiet since they'd entered the passage, so he sought her out to see if his suspicions were correct, though it almost felt odd doing so.

Since they'd left Garnet, he and Ren had not been alone in each other's presence. On the ship Crow was nearly always with him, or Toyo and Zen were with Ren or himself, or they were together with the whole crew. The maroon haired boy had a nagging feeling that they had begun drifting apart since joining the pirate crew and he secretly felt guilty for it. Although they had not met under such great conditions, in the two months he had been paying off his debt to her cat he felt as if they'd become friends of a sort, at least he hoped that much.

A quiet, lilting voice broke through his musings, although he could not quite understand the words that were drifting into his ears. Seto could tell with ease that it was Ren, her singing voice familiar in his ears as he drew closer.

"...love, and tomorrow we will meet." She was sitting on what looked like part of a collapsed building, her silver hair nearly shimmering in the moonlight as she swung one of her legs off the edge. She looked almost picturesque in an odd way Seto couldn't place and he was stunned when he caught sight of her.

Walking up behind her, he climbed clumsily up the rubble and gently touched her clothed shoulder. Ren nearly jumped out of her skin as she turned to look at who had caught her out this time of night, and looked shocked when she saw it was just Seto.

"...You touched me," she whispered out, a frown making its way to her face as if she were not quite sure what to make of the situation.

"I didn't want to startle you," he replied, confused by her reaction, even though his plan to not catch her off guard with his presence had failed.

"You never touch anyone," she elaborated, the shocked look on her face lessening as she continued to speak. "Aside from Crow, that is." Seto visibly blushed at the implications of those words.

"I-I haven't heard you sing in awhile," he said in a rush of words, trying to change to a different less embarrassing topic, as well as one that would require less explanations than the one that Ren had started. "I forgot how pretty your voice was."

If Ren took notice of the purposeful change in their conversation she didn't show it, instead glancing back at the moon. It wasn't a full moon that night. Seto was almost half sure that in his time in the dungeon, the full moon had passed already, but it was still bright enough to light up the darker parts of the city to a degree.

"You only sing...w-when you have a lot on your mind, Ren," he commented quietly, glancing at her sideways as she tensed. In a flash her eyes were on him and she was scowling.

"That isn't true," she denied.

"Y-yes it is," he told her with a small, almost knowing smile. "Remember back in Garnet when the shop was in danger of getting shut down when business was slow? Or the night after Vulture attacked the town?" The silver haired girl flinched at that memory, the death of Hazel becoming fresh once again in her mind. "I heard you singing. And Zen said that the first night on the ship he heard you singing."

Ren's eyes lost their intensity as she looked away, quiet as she let the words sink in. A slow smile came to her face and she made an odd sort of noise. Seto frowned at her worriedly, and blinked in surprise when she broke out in humorless laughter.

"When...when did you get so observant, Seto?" She asked after a moment, catching her breath. She wasn't looking at him, but instead at her lap where her hands fidgeted.

Seto smiled calmly despite the fact she couldn't see it. "I've always been observant, Ren," he answered.

Ren's lips quirked up in the vaguest sort of smile. "I know. You've always been good at telling what people are feeling, huh?" She asked, though it wasn't a question she was expecting an answer to. She knew the answer, and she shot Seto such a knowing look it almost made him feel guilty. "...Do you think they're ok?" She asked quietly, asking the question that seemed to have been weighing on them both since they'd escaped from the plaza.

Seto hesitated under her eyes. He didn't need to look at her fire to see how worried she was. He could see it plainly by looking at just her. After a moment he shook his head helplessly. "I really don't know," he admitted, for the first time during the conversation looking away.

There was a beat of silence.

"You know, while you and Crow were breaking into the plaza, me and Toyo were wandering around the city sightseeing?" Ren started saying. Seto turned back to glance at her, frowning as he wondered where this was going. "He showed me everything in the city almost, and he bought me lunch, and he got me a book from one of the vendors after I demanded he get it for me..." She said with a small laugh, enjoying the memory. She sobered quickly, and continued quietly. "A-And you know what? I never thanked him...I never thanked him, Seto!" Ren's voice broke.

Seto sat there stunned. Of all the things that Ren could have said, that wasn't one he had been expecting. Later he was sure he would note that this was the first time he had seen her break down over a human being and not one of her cats. Ren was always so strong, he'd be lying if he said he'd seen her vulnerable very often.

Hesitantly, he reached over and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, careful not to let their skin brush. He hadn't put his coat back on after they'd gotten out and was only in the blue shirt Crow had bought for him, and was regretting it slightly. The maroon haired boy didn't want to almost literally shock her, not when she was like this. But she really seemed like she needed the comfort, so he was going to have to risk it.

Ren tensed at the sudden contact, no doubt shocked that Seto was touching her again, but relaxed in his arms and set her forehead on his shoulder, just letting him hold her.

"I'm sure they're fine," he murmured quietly, making a silent wish that his words were true. "They are vicious pirates, after all," he said with a small smile, thinking of his and Crow's conversation earlier.

Ren let a small giggle at that and lifted her head to meet his eyes, a look in them he couldn't quite place. "You've changed a lot in the past couple of months, Seto." She told him, almost fondly. The sudden observation caught Seto off guard and he floundered mentally for a reply before Ren set her head back on his shoulder, adding quietly, "I think they're good changes, though."

Again, Seto was left at a loss for a reply to her words and fought to find one. After failing miserably he let out a tired sounding sigh, giving up and letting silence fall between the two of them.

In the quiet under the moon, they stayed close and enjoyed each other's presence.

* * *

They walked back to the secret entrance to the palace after a little while, finding a very miffed looking Sai standing there along with Mar and the Princess.

"You two find anything?" Mar asked as Sai began to open her mouth. She shut it with a nasty look on her face. "I think we found a pretty good place, if not, but it's good to have options."

Ren and Seto both shook their heads, since they hadn't actually looked around for a place to stay like they had been supposed to.

With a nod, Mar motioned them to follow him and he began walking, holding the Princess's hand as they walked. Sai cast Seto and Ren a small glare before following, and the maroon haired boy had to think it was because they had arrived back later than the rest of the group.

Ren and Seto trailed behind, and Seto found himself whispering "Do you know anything about her?" It had occurred to him that maybe, hopefully, Ren might be able to tell him something about the girl. Or at least something he didn't already know.

The silver haired girl gave a small shake of her head, whispering back. "I don't know much. Zen mentioned that she knew about the treasure Crow's after, but he didn't say much else."

Seto blinked. Sai knew about the treasure? He wondered if that had been mentioned while they were in the dungeon and he hadn't been awake enough to catch that part of the conversation. He added that to his list of suspicious coincidences that the dark haired girl seemed to be a part of.

"Hurry up, you two!" None other than Sai herself snapped at the two of them as she, Mar and the Princess halted in front of a single story building made out of light colored stone, with two broken windows and a beaten up door that looked like it was about to fall off of its hinges.

As they got closer, Seto noticed that the Princess seemed very hesitant to enter the building.

Seto entered after Sai, looking over the room curiously. It was completely barren save for the moon light coming in through the windows. There was a very large scorch mark on the walls in one corner that indicated that someone had once used that corner to keep a fire, but other than that the single room building looked barely lived in. It was almost unsettling.

And to be honest, the stone floor beneath their feet did not look like it was very inviting to sleep on. Seto had slept on stone before in his travels, and had slept on stone the past two nights, but it wasn't something he really wanted to make a habit out of. Maybe having a bed since he'd moved into Ren's shop and joined Crow's crew had spoiled him a bit, but he wasn't looking forward to the night ahead.

Ren came up next to him, and the look on her face told him that she was sharing his sentiments. "Well, we might as well try and get some sleep," she said. Her voice already sounded tired. "In the morning, me or Seto'll go tell the rest of the crew what's going on. From there, we can plan on what to do."

And with that, Ren walked in the room and set herself up facing one of the walls. Seto walked that way as well, fiddling with part of his bag before he sat down close to the silver haired girl. He opened it up and pulled his coat out before setting it down next to her. Ren rolled over and gave him a curious look, which then turned thankful as she pulled the bag beneath her head to use as a makeshift pillow. The maroon haired boy folded up his coat and set it on the ground, planning on using it in the same fashion.

He didn't check what the other three members of their group were up to, though the rustle of fabric allowed him to assume they were also getting settled for the long night ahead of them. Seto curled in on himself with a small shiver, wishing he was back on the ship in Crow's bed. Thinking of that made him think of Crow, and how worried he was about the pirate. Finally, he was able to make himself stop thinking about him, and he forced himself into a restless sleep.

* * *

That morning as planned, Ren and Seto made their way to the Black Wing's ship, slipping through the crowds unnoticed.

Seto was tense when they arrived at the docks, unsure of how the crew was going to react to the fact that because of him their captain and two of their crew mates had been left behind fighting armed guards while he and Ren had escaped.

Much too his shock, the crew took the news surprisingly well, though they looked a little grim about it. Oki explained to them that whatever situation they got themselves into, they were going to have to get themselves right back out of. He said this, giving Seto a somewhat pointed.

"Especially in a place like Merchant City, there isn't much we can do," Oki told them, his voice apologetic. They'd offer any help that they could, but the pirates weren't going to storm the city without their captain's permission. Seto was silently thankful for that, but also upset that there didn't seem anything else that the crew could do. He was ecstatic over the fact that the crew had forgiven them so easily, though.

"Of course they did," Ren said after he mentioned this as they got off the ship. "We're part of the crew too, you know. They were probably happy we made it back safely."

Seto hadn't thought of it like that, but Ren's explanation made him happy enough, so he didn't give it any more thought.

Arriving back at their make-shift hideout, Mar told them that there had been no sign of Crow, Toyo, and Zen since they'd left. He recommended that a few of them go into town and listen for any news that might help them out.

"Why haven't you left yet?" Seto found himself asking, catching the merchant off guard as he re-arranged their swords in the fire marked corner.

"Why would I leave?" Mar asked frowning, his single eye watching Seto with some confusion.

"W-Well, you got the Princess…" Seto said, feeling almost bad for bringing this topic up "Wouldn't it be s-safer for you two to leave and stay out of all this t-trouble?"

Mar looked at him surprised. "Well of course that would be safer." He said, a frown creasing his face "That was the plan before your friends got caught up in this. I'm not about to just leave when it'd be my fault if something happened to them."

It was Seto's turn to look surprised, and he flushed with embarrassment over the fact that he hadn't even thought about why Mar might have been staying. Of course Mar was going to help them out. He was just that kind of person.

"I'm sorry. I r-really shouldn't have asked that…" Seto apologized, to which Mar replied with a shake of his head, walking over and ruffling his hair. Seto had to fight not to flinch away from the contact.

"Do not even think of it, good sir," Mar said, his voice slipping into the familiar tone of the voice he used when he was running his shop. "You have a lot on your mind right now, I won't take anything you say personally." Mar flashed him a smile and pushed him towards the door, ordering that he go out into town like Sai and Ren had already done and sweep around for information, since he and the Princess couldn't be seen in town for obvious reasons. The three of them were harder to spot in a crowd though.

In town there were no rumors about the Princess's supposed wedding that would have taken place today, or any rumors about pirates in the King's Plaza. Their break-in was the talk on the street it seemed, but all of the stories were vague and didn't tell Seto much of anything useful.

Seto went back to the Large Crystal district when it got later, and together with Ren and Sai they discussed what information they had gotten.

All in all, they found nothing of use. Spirits dampened in that aspect, again no one slept well that night.

* * *

The second day, the city was abuzz with the news of a trial that was taking place in the plaza.

"Seems there was a break-out o' sorts in the dungeons." A vendor Seto stopped to talk to was telling him. "D'ay got three of 'em. Three pirates it looks like. Bet we'll see them hanging by tomorrow," the man said with a laugh. Eyes wide, Seto took off running, the laughter still ringing behind him and echoing in his ears even as he got farther away.

This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening.

Seto burst through the door of their hide-out with enough force that the door finally fell off its hinges "They got caught!"

The sudden outburst caught both Mar, the Princess, and Sai (why was she there?) off guard, and he took a minute to catch his breath before he continued. In hind sight, he shouldn't have run all the way from that shop to here. "T-They got caught…a-and they're being tried today, a-and they're going to be hung tomorrow, a-and…" Seto stopped himself, feeling his throat tighten.

Ren came running through the door next. "Guys! Toyo, Zen and Crow! They got -"

"Captured. We know." Sai stepped in, her voice sounding far too calm for Seto's liking. "I was wondering when you two were going to hear about it and come running back here." She said with a sigh.

"Don't act so calm about it! We need to do something, or else they're all going to die tomorrow!" Ren nearly shrieked. The silver haired girl clenched her fists, attempting to calm herself down. Seto felt much the same.

"What do you expect to be able to do?" The eye patch wearing girl asked. "We can't break back in there to save them. They're probably going to be under heavy guard after we escaped. And tomorrow there's going to be guards everywhere. There's no hope in trying to save them."

Seto clenched his teeth together, once again biting back angry words. "There's always hope," he ground out, lifting his eyes to meet Sai's. She blinked at the determination she found there. "I don't know about you, but I'm going to try my hardest to save them, even if it is hopeless. It's what they would have done for any of us."

Seto turned to look at the Princess, a plan forming in his mind even as he began speaking. "Princess, if there's any hope in us saving them, we're going to need your help though."

* * *

Crow flinched slightly as he was brought outside, having nearly spent nearly the last three days completely underground his eyes weren't accustomed to the sun light. They'd brought him up for his trial the day before, which had gone just as expected. He was not given anyone to defend him, and he had not been given a chance to defend himself. The King sentenced him to death by hanging. Crow had to assume that Toyo and Zen's trials hadn't differed much procedure wise.

The pirate captain wasn't exactly scared as they exited the plaza, the boom of voices awaiting his death nearly giving him a headache after being in near complete silence for so long. Sure, he wasn't happy about it, but Crow had figured that as a pirate this was going to be the day he died one day anyways. It was either that, or in the midst of battle. Honestly, Crow had been hoping for the latter option, because that would have been an awesome way to die.

Really, the only thing that was still bothering him was not knowing what had happened to Seto. The guards that had come maybe twice over his three day imprisonment had refused to speak to him or answer any of his questions. The guards at his sides right now were much the same. It had nearly strangled him with worry the first night alone in his cell. He wouldn't mind being hanged so long as Seto had gotten out of the plaza alright. Really, in the past few days, Seto had been on the fore front of his mind more than he'd wish to admit.

Seeing his ship still in port as they entered a small circular area where the gallows sat, Crow swore he felt his heart drop to his feet. Limply, he let himself be pulled towards his imminent death, and stood stoically once he was brought up the stairs to the platform. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Toyo and Zen standing off the platform. He was going to assume that they had come to the same conclusion as he had upon seeing the ship at the docks. That their friends had not made it out of the plaza.

The purple clad pirate lifted his head as the noose was placed around his neck, seeing the King himself standing in from of the platform, the smug look on his face looking almost as if it had been painted on there. Simply being there was probably supposed to have been what told Crow that he had lost this one, and he was almost tempted to tell the King that he was a little late in breaking his spirits.

"Crow, Captain of the Black Wing pirates, you are here today facing death for all of the crimes you have committed against my Kingdom and your numerous crimes and other sins. Do have any last words you wish to leave behind in this world?" The King asked, his voice alone silencing the entire crowd around the gallows.

Crow opened his mouth, if only to make his lasts words in this world completely sarcastic and rude to this King, but a familiar voice rang out, silencing his words.

"Tally ho!" The crowd turned to look immediately at the arched entrance that they had all come in, and gasped at what they saw there.

The King's face soured. "Move out of the way!" The King ordered, and the crowd parted before the pirate's eyes, landing on what the crowd had been so shocked to see. By the way the King stiffened, he hadn't been expecting it either.

Standing there beneath the arch was a boy, who looked no older than Crow, possibly even younger. The shadows being cast on his face from the arch made it somewhat hard to tell; as did the incredibly familiar, obnoxiously large hat he was wearing. He was wearing all black, from the long black dress shirt that puffed out at the sleeves and collar, to his slacks, the boots on his feet and the gloves on his hands. In his hands was a sword. A sword that was being held to the Princess's throat.

"You filthy scum!" Called the King enraged "How dare you?"

"Anyway I please, your Majesty," the figure said, his voice sounding bored as he walked out of the shadows. The sunlight caught a deep blue feather atop his hat, made his purple eyes glint and light up his odd, maroon colored hair.

"Seto…" Crow breathed out, relief flooding through him.

"And the way I dare as I please, is with a bargain," Seto said, with such bravado that Crow almost had a hard time thinking it was the meek, quiet boy he'd fallen for. "The pirates for the Princess. Doesn't that seem fair?"

"That is most definitely not a fair trade, young man." The King snarled out, taking a menacing step in the teen's direction. "I make a point to not make deals with pirates."

Seto brought the sword closer to the Princess's neck, and a flash of sympathy, that Crow was sure only he noticed, went across his eyes when the Princess winced.

"Is that your final answer, your Majesty?" Seto asked.

"Father, please!" The Princess begged.

The King looked at her passively, almost like he hadn't heard the words. "That is my final answer, pirate." The King said, turning his back to the darkly clad boy and making a motion to the executioner with his hand. There was barely a pause before Crow felt the platform beneath his feet fall and the loop around his throat constrict his breathing.

Through his watering eyes, he saw Seto dash forward, sword in hand. The Princess was nowhere to be seen. Faintly, he saw the boy through something that gleamed in the light of the sun and gave a shout. "Now!"

The sword cleaved through the rope holding him up and he plummeted down, gasping for air when he hit the ground. There was commotion all around him and when he looked, he saw Ren and Sai also out of their normal clothing and dressed more like pirates, cutting Zen and Toyo free. He blinked when he saw the executioner fall off the side of the platform and looked up through the space where he had fallen. Seto jumped down to meet him, sword back in hand.

The close up view of Seto dressed so dashingly as a pirate would be an image that Crow kept with him for the rest of his life.

"Sure took your time, didn't you?" He asked, nearly teasing.

Seto let out a small laugh. "Is that the thanks I get for saving your neck?" He asked lightly, flipping around the sword to hand it to the pirate.

Crow took it with a grin "I'll give you my thanks when we get out of this mess." He promised; his grin implying much more than his words.

Seto rolled his eyes, but the blush on his face was obvious as he pulled out another sword from the sheath on his side. Crow noticed then that he himself was handling one of the swords that the plaza guards carried.

"So, what did you have planned after you pulled that fancy sword trick and got me down?" The pirate asked as they emerged out from under the gallows' platform, guards surrounding them.

"I…I really didn't plan that far ahead." Seto admitted, and smiled sheepishly when Crow shot him a look that said he was now less impressed with this rescue plan. "I figured we'd work it out once we got this far."

Crow rolled his eyes, but he couldn't hide the grin on his face. "You've been spending way too much time with me."

Crow felt a hand in his. "You say that like it's a bad thing," the maroon haired boy said quietly. Before Crow had a chance to comment on that, they were running. They broke through the group of guards with some resistance and made their way into the screaming crowd, who immediately parted in fear to let them through.

"I can't believe they let you keep your hat!" Seto said, running into a side ally as they got through the worst of the crowd, the guards right behind him.

Crow snorted, fixing his cap before snarking back. "I can't believe that you're wearing that thing on your head. Is that honestly how you think pirates dress?"

Seto laughed. "Not my idea." He pulled them into another corner, and they emerged in part of the city Crow didn't exactly recognize. It was obviously another shopping district it seemed, but it seemed to be on almost the literal edge of town. Crow could see the ocean over the tops of a few of the buildings.

Seto didn't leave him any time to question where they were going or to really look it over, pulling him towards a large, gray stone area that seemed to overlook the sea. Behind them, the guards emerged, and Crow was almost sure that he could hear the King's voice somewhere in the mix behind them.

"Seto, you're heading towards a dead end!" Crow hissed as they climbed the steps.

He was met with no reply, but instead with a seemingly random— "You never finished telling me your story, you know."

Crow blinked, and then scoffed. "You're still going on about that?" He asked as they slowly came to a stop at the top of the stairs. It seemed that the way it was built, it was probably supposed to have been a viewing platform for the ocean that never got finished. The top step was all they had to stand on that kept them from plummeting down into ocean.

Seto pouted at him. "I'm not going on about it, you never finished telling me," he said indignantly, almost unaware of the guards and, in fact, the King arriving at the base of the stairs.

"Is my story really the last thing you want to hear?" Crow nearly snapped.

"Yes." Well, that was a blunt and to the point answer. Crow almost sighed.

"Where was I at, anyways?"

"You just got your name," Seto said, a slight smile coming onto his face for reasons Crow wasn't sure he was aware of.

"Well, the rest of the story is pretty straight forward after that." He grumbled, listening to the guards and their noisy armor as they hurried up the stairs to apprehend them. "I became a pirate and Captain Raven became sort of my new dad, and I ended up first mate under him. We raided and pillaged and did numerous terrible things before…" Crow stopped, taking a breath. "…Before he got killed in a confrontation with another pirate ship. I became captain after that, and a few months later I met you." Crow looked at Seto, smiling at the look on the maroon haired boy's face.

The moment was ruined when Crow found that there were now several swords pointed at them, and he lifted his own to push a few back.

The King came up through the group, the look of rage on his face barely contained as he scowled at them. At Seto in particular.

"You, you aren't a pirate by any means," he stated darkly "I could tell from your mannerisms a few days ago."

"You're right." Seto said, his bravado from earlier coming back as he talked to the King. Crow wondered if he'd rehearsed this at all, because he doubted under normal circumstances that the maroon haired boy could be this calm. "I'm no pirate."

"Then why are you risking your life for this wretch?" The King asked. "Surely you realize that by doing this you have sealed your fate to death just as he has. Your life can't be worth saving some pirate."

The grip on Crow's hand tightened and Seto took a sudden step backwards, pulling Crow with him. The guards started at the sudden movement. "That's where you're wrong, you're Majesty." Seto said, and the King's façade broke enough to show that he did not understand that dark clad boy's words. Seto smiled at him, a smile that almost made him seem like a pirate himself. "He isn't just any pirate, he's _my_ pirate." With that, Seto let himself fall back off the stairs and into the ocean, pulling Crow along with him, who let out an obscene shout.

As it went, Crow was found he was not faced with the death he was expecting from hitting the water from the height they had fallen. Instead, they landed roughly in a net that nearly gave way after the impact. Crow grunted, fighting to sit up and listened as Seto started laughing.

"That wasn't funny!" He snapped "You scared the hell out of me!"

Seto grinned at him from where he laid in the net, the hat off of his head and his hair an absolute mess. His eyes were shining with laughter. Crow looked away, feeling his face heat up. "I'm sorry, Crow, I didn't have time to tell you about this part."

"Was that why you asked me to finish the story? To keep me from pulling some stunt of my own?" He asked, frowning slightly.

Seto paused, and shook his head. "Kind of. That was part of it. The other part was that you never did finish telling me the story, and I really wanted to know." Seto smiled softly at him, and Crow felt his heart miss a beat. "I told you, I wanted to know more about Crow."

Crow sat stunned for a few seconds, before he let out a chuckle of his own and fell back into the net, his hand still tightly clasped in Seto's. "So when are we getting rescued from here?"

"The crew should be coming to let us down soon." Seto said, and as if on cue there was slack in the net and it started a slow descent "There's a boat down there that'll get us somewhere safe where the ship can come get us. Zen and Toyo and Ren should be taking care of that."

Crow was quiet for a moment "You planned all this?" He asked, marveling at his maroon haired friend.

Seto blushed. "N-Not all of it, but parts of it." He said humbly.

Crow rolled his eyes a bit at that, but didn't comment on it. They didn't talk the rest of the way down, the only real sound heard coming from above them as they guards shouted and cursed.

When they arrived on flat ground, they waited for the rest of the crew that had let them down out of the net before climbing into the small row boat. They rowed in, almost equally silent, to their destination, but Crow could tell by the looks on everyone's faces that they were glad he was alright.

When they stopped, they were back on the edge of another part of the city that happened to not have such a large incline as it went to the ocean. Standing there waiting for them was Mar and the Princess.

For the first time since they'd reunited, Seto let go of Crow's hand and hurried over to the pair, leaving Crow scowling. The Princess grabbed his hands and held them tight, smiling as brightly as the sun.

"You…thank you so much, for everything you've done," she said.

Seto smiled at her, and the Princess looked likely to swoon at the gesture. Mar bristled behind them and if Crow had not been about to walk over and pull them apart, he would have laughed. "I told you already, it was my pleasure." He bowed his head and let go of her hands, walking past her to speak with Mar. She stared after him, and Crow nearly rolled his eyes. Though he had to admit, with what Seto was wearing, it was kind of hard not to stare.

"Where will you guys be going from here?" The maroon haired boy asked the merchant.

"A trader buddy of mine is letting us stow away on his ship. Right now we just need to get out of the city, but I'm sure we'll find something to do after that." Mar grinned at him and clapped him on the shoulder. "I can't thank you enough, Seto." Seto opened his mouth to decline, but Mar continued. "If it wasn't for you I would have never seen the Princess smile again, so please, just take my thanks."

Seto frowned, closing his mouth. He sighed, giving Mar a smile "You're welcome, Mar," he said brightly. He inclined his head to look around the chicken like merchant, spotting the familiar sails of the Black Wing's ship. He turned to look at Mar. "I guess this is goodbye then."

"We shall meet again," Mar said with a dramatic bow, looking up only to grin at Seto. "One day, I'm sure."

The merchant looked past him to where Crow stood and said "You better keep an eye on him, or someone'll steal him right from under your nose, pirate."

Crow scowled. "Like I need you telling me that, you stupid merchant!"

Mar laughed as the ship pulled close enough to set the walkway down. Ren waved at them from the side of the ship, yelling at them to hurry it up. They hurried up the plank of wood before the crew members pulled it up.

"About time. The guard's ship is going to be after us any minute," she snapped. Behind her stood Toyo and Zen, both rolling their eyes at her bossy nature, but smiling nonetheless.

As they began to set off from the city, Mar's voice reached them. Turning back, they saw the merchant and the princess waving. "Best regards until we meet again! Until then, take care!"

* * *

Not long after Merchant City began to disappear behind them, Crow called the group together in Ren's room for a meeting. Or at least, that was his initial plan.

"What is she doing on my ship?" Crow asked, glaring at Sai as she took a seat on one of the benches in Ren's room.

"Well…we really didn't have time to kick her off when we were rescuing you guys," Ren said, shrugging slightly as she sat down at her desk. "Besides, she helped me and Seto save you guys, so I don't see the big deal letting her stay on the ship for awhile."

"I have to agree with Ren on that one," Zen said. "Sai also knows a lot about the treasure. She might be able to help us with finding it."

Crow scowled. While Ren and Zen had a point, he trusted Seto's instincts over theirs. "What's your opinion on this?" He asked the maroon haired boy, who had not yet had a chance to change.

Seto frowned, glancing around the room before he looked at Sai. He was still suspicious of her, and he couldn't bring himself to say he liked her much, but those didn't sit well as reasons for him to turn her away from the ship. "I…don't see a problem with her staying on the ship." He answered. "F-For awhile, at least."

Crow looked at them all for a moment before he gave a nod "Alright, fine. She can stay with us for now." He conceded, waving his hand to clear the subject.

"Anyways! So, what did you call us into Ren's room for Crow?" Toyo chimed in, eying his captain curiously. The rest of the group minus Seto looked much the same, wondering why he had called them; and in Ren's case, wondering why this meeting taking place in her room and not in the captain's quarters.

The purple clad pirate glanced around the room, making eye contact with every occupant. "What we discuss in this room is not to be told to anyone else, not even the rest of the crew. Do we have an understanding on that?" Crow asked plainly, staring directly at Sai as he spoke. There were nods around the room and he waited a moment before continuing. "I'm sure to some degree, you all remember the conversation we had in the dungeons a few days ago." Crow didn't need to explain what he meant; they all knew what he was referring to. When they had discussed the star chart, and Seto had told them he was the 'other lead'.

"Do you finally plan on explaining all this?" Zen asked.

Crow rolled his eyes "You say that like we didn't tell you some of it." He grumbled, but a look from the rest of the group told him that he needed to get on with the conversation. "Do you all remember the raid on Garnet?" He started, ignoring Sai's questioning look and letting Zen explain the basics to her. "That was around when I first ran into Seto, like most of you know. He was weird and so uptight that I couldn't quit picking on him, and he hated the idea of getting touched." At this, he ignored the indignant look on his maroon haired friend's face.

"When we were about to confront Vulture, he was acting all suspicious like he knew something was up, and he wouldn't go follow me so I tried to drag him along." Crow paused, taking in a deep breath "And I found the reason Seto didn't want people touching him. When he makes skin contact with someone, they'll see what he sees."

There was a chorus of confused looks. Crow looked over at Seto, who was fumbling with his hands trying to avoid eye contact. Crow knew this couldn't be easy for him, but they had agreed to explain what was going on. Seto looked up and caught his eye. Crow nodded at him. "W-Well…ever since I can remember, my eyes have been seeing two different things. My right eye sees what you g-guys all see, but my left eye…" Seto swallowed dryly "M-M-My left eye sees a different sort of place, where everything's white, and everyone is covered in a f-fire that sh-shows me what they're f-feeling," he explained shakily.

"…So that's why you could always tell who was lying in the shop." Ren murmured to herself, feeling like a great mystery had been solved.

Seto continued on without making a comment, trying to finish before he lost his nerve. "B-But people aren't the only things that have fires. Things like the moon and the sun and the stars do, too. S-Since I joined the crew, Crow and I have been making a chart of some weird stars that kinda look like they lead somewhere."

Toyo hummed thoughtfully. "So that's why we've been going east this whole time?" He asked.

Seto blinked at him. "We've been going east?"

"You didn't notice?" Crow asked. Seto shook his head "I figured you knew, since your old man told you to go east."

Seto laughed sheepishly. "I've never been good with directions…so we've been going east this whole time?" He asked, frowning. "Do you think grandpa sent me east because he saw the stars going that way?"

"He might have…" Zen said, filing away the information "Seto, what kind of person was your grandfather?"

The maroon haired boy blinked. "Huh? W-Well…he wasn't really my grandpa, he's the o-one who found me when I kind of...crashed." Despite the looks he was receiving, Seto refused to comment more on that. "He was nice enough and he raised me. He was always looking at sky though and writing things down. We used to stargaze a lot together," Seto explained.

Zen hummed thoughtfully "You know, we might stand a better chance of learning more about what Seto can do if we talk to the person who spent the most time with him."

"M-My grandpa died awhile ago. The last thing he told me to do was go east…"

"You said he wrote a lot of things down, right?" Sai asked "Maybe he was writing about you. Did you ever see what he wrote down?"

Seto shook his head. "I-I never looked. He kept all of his notes in his library. I really didn't think a lot about them."

"Would they still be there?" Crow asked. Seto nodded.

"I don't see why not…" He said quietly. He glanced around the room. "You guys…you're taking this really well."

Toyo blinked at him "What did you think we were going to do? Throw you over board or something?"

Ren rolled her eyes. "I'm just mad that you didn't tell me! I could have made a lot of money off you," she said jokingly.

"I don't really care what you can do, but that little trick of yours seems handy," Sai commented boredly.

"I mean, I don't really get it…" Toyo said. "But you were my friend before I knew about it, and you're still my friend after." The red head grinned. "If you let me see it, that is."

Crow bristled at the comment. Seto smiled nervously "Y-Yeah, I guess that would be fine," he said. Toyo did a little cheer and hopped up, hurrying over to Seto. The dark clad boy took the glove off of one of his hands and held his hand out for his red haired friend to take.

Seto winced at the initial shock and Toyo nearly let go of his hand.

"Wo-woah!" Toyo gasped, staring around the room in wonder "When you said everything was white, I didn't think this is what you meant," he said awed, looking at the people in the room. "Why are the fires all colorful like that?"

"I-It's what they're feeling, or at least I think that's what it means," Seto explained as Toyo's eyes landed and stayed on Ren.

"So…" Toyo pulled him close and whispered in his ear. "What's Ren feeling? I don't understand all those colors!" He hissed.

The maroon haired boy blinked and let out a laugh "She's like she normally is, she's getting mad though."

"Why?" He asked curiously.

"Because I can hear what you're talking about!" Ren snapped, walking over and pulling the two whispering boys apart. "Hmph!" Ren crossed her arms, turning her back on Toyo as he went slack jawed. Zen let out a laugh.

"Alright, alright," Crow said standing up from his spot. "It's been a long day, and we should get some re-" Crow stopped short, his eyes narrowing in on Ren's hand holding Seto's. "What are you doing?"

Ren looked at him innocently. "Absolutely nothing," she said. Crow glared at her, and the giggle that came after was anything but innocent. She turned to Seto. "Does he always get that green when he sees people with you?"

Seto blushed visibly and pulled his hand away, holding it close. "C-Crow's right. We should probably get some rest, especially if we're going to my grandpa's house from here. It's g-gonna be a long trip."

The rest of the room nodded.

"Well, if that's the case…" Ren started. "All of you get out of my room!"

* * *

When Seto entered Crow's room for the night, he found himself pushed against the door as it was closed. "H-Huh?"

In the dark of the room, the small amount of light filtering in made Crow's eyes gleam in a way that made Seto's throat go dry. "So, I'm _your_ pirate, am I?" He asked, the sultry note in his voice not going completely unnoticed.

"W-W-Well, I-I mean that isn't, what I—" Seto was silenced by a pair of lips on his. Seto let out a small gasp at the sudden jolt, but relaxed. He was almost sad when Crow pulled away.

"You should dress up in my clothes more often," Crow said with a smirk. "I guess all my coolness transfers to you when you wear them." He lifted a hand and pulled on Seto's collar lightly "And you don't look half bad in them either."

Seto blushed. "C-Crow…"

"I love you, Seto."

The words made the maroon haired boy's heart stop, his brain freeze, and his mouth not work. In the dark he could see Crow's eyes staring into his, awaiting a reply. An answer.

Seto was quiet for a moment, before he hesitantly leaned forward and pecked his pirate on the lips.

"I-I love you too, Crow."

End Chapter

Nooo….this chapter's action scenes were NOT heavily inspired from watching Pirates of the Caribbean, of course not! –cough-

Anyways! With this, we bring an end to the Merchant City arc! Next few chapters are going to be filler for travel until they arrive at their destination. Probably lots of teasing and fluff, nothing you guys probably want to read, right? ;D

But seriously, all together now- D'awww…and the crew took the news well! Sai is suspicious as ever, who knows what she's up to? All of this shall be revealed…at some later point in time, but probably not anytime soon. Seto was certainly cool this chapter in my opinion. I can't let Crow be doing all the awesome things~ He'll be back in his turquoise coat by next chapter, though. Also, for those who don't remember, the pirate mentioned (Oki) was brought up in both Ren's and Seto's journal entries.

Thanks to everyone who read last chapter, and thanks to everyone who also reviewed! As usual reviews are loved, and helpful criticisms are always appreciated.

**Major Thanks** to AYMK00 for beta reading this chapter for me!

Until next time!

~Sleepy ;D

P.S. Not important, but with this chapter, the story is now over 100k words! How awesome is that?


	26. Peaceful Days

Travel Day: 1

"You open it!"

"No way! I like my head where it is, thanks."

"Oh come on! They're probably still asleep!"

"What on earth are you two doing?" Zen asked. Ren and Toyo started, the former giving the other silverette a glare. Zen raised an eyebrow in her direction "Trying to spy on Crow and Seto again?"

Toyo at least looked sheepish for being pulled into this scheme. Ren huffed "Oh, like you weren't wondering how they were doing."

"Not really." Zen replied flatly. Ren continued glaring at him for a few seconds before she turned back towards the door that lead into the Captain's Quarters. The silver haired girl pressed her ear to the door.

She immediately jumped backwards when something hard banged into it from the other side.

Toyo laughed nervously "I think we woke the captain up…"

* * *

Travel Day: 3

"So…are you sort of like a psychic?" Toyo asked Seto at some late point in the day while he was on crow's nest duty. Seto had come up to visit since Ren and Crow were having an argument that pertained to stopping by Garnet on their way to his grandfather's house, and Zen was doing damage control. Toyo didn't mind though, he enjoyed the company.

"Huh?" Seto blinked at him, a bemused look on his face "What do you mean?"

"Like, can you read minds too? Or can you just see all those colors and guess?" Toyo asked curiously.

Seto frowned and shook his head "I-I don't really think so…I mean I might be able to, but I don't really know. I d-don't really know how it works myself…" The maroon haired boy explained with an apologetic smile. "I-I've just been seeing the fires for so long I just sort of know what they mean by now."

The red haired teen hummed thoughtfully "So…if you could read minds, you'd tell me right?"

"Even if I could I wouldn't tell you what Ren thinks of you, Toyo." Seto said in deadpan before laughing at the other boy's crestfallen look.

Toyo stuck his tongue out at the turquoise clad boy "Hmph! Fine! If that's the case I won't tell you a secret about Crow I was gonna share before you went all mean." The red haired boy stuck his tongue out childishly at his maroon haired friend before he jumped from his spot and began descending back down to the deck.

"H-Hey! That's not fair!"

* * *

Travel Day: 8

The night sky was clear and the ocean was calm, reflecting the stars on its surface. Up near the helm, Zen and Seto were sitting hand in hand much like they had the past few nights re-working the star chart so it would be more accurate. Crow wasn't a navigator after all and the chart as it was without Zen's corrections would lead them nowhere.

"I know you two were just going by eye when you made this but…" Zen let out an exasperated sigh "I wouldn't have thought you would be this off."

"How bad is it?" Seto asked, looking down from the sky to look at the paper laid out before them.

"All of Crow's coordinates are off by about twenty or so degrees heading southeast, and that's just from Merchant City it looks like." Zen answered, marking yet another correction on the blank star chart they'd brought up with them "Following this, it wouldn't surprise me if someone trying to follow it got completely turned around at some point."

Seto laughed nervously at the silver haired boy's serious tone, glancing back up at the sky and tracing the line of gray stars that they now seemed to be following west. "T-Then it's a good thing we weren't following it, huh?"

The boy next to him hummed a reply, only glancing up from the chart on his lap to look skywards for a few seconds before going back to work. It was a companionable silence that Seto had relaxed into days before when Zen had first asked him to help make a corrected version on the star chart. Crow had grudgingly agreed to the arrangement, but he gave them a curfew for how long they could be out at night. Well, that and…

"Is he still there?" Zen questioned him quietly, still not looking up from his work.

Seto craned his head to the side to look behind them at the stairs leading up to where they were. In his normal vision he couldn't see anything, but his left eye was easily seeing the large, familiar midnight purple flame that was tinged everywhere in green that belonged to a certain pirate captain. Said pirate captain had also been standing in that spot since they'd come up from the lower decks, and had been following that same routine for the past few nights now.

Seto almost sighed "Should we let him know we know he's there?" Seto whispered back, turning to glance at the silver haired pirate.

"Nah, let him simmer for a bit." Zen said, smirking in an unnerving way that reminded him somewhat of the person they were talking about "Crow has to learn someday that you're going to be around other people." Zen paused, and then added a bit louder, as if it was an afterthought, "Whether he likes it or not."

Zen was quiet again after that, only making comments about his captain's bad job on the chart and occasionally asking Seto questions about the stars. Sometime after he'd stopped speaking Seto found himself glancing back at where Crow had been standing, surprised to see that the pirate seemed to have left for the night.

* * *

Travel Day: 12

The port was lit by crude looking candles and lanterns, illuminating the smog of cigarette smoke and other various things that hung in the air like a fog. People poured out into the streets from taverns and bars; some alone, some with a girl or two on their arms, and some just on the verge of falling on their faces. Others who were not staggering out of bars were huddled close together, exchanging hushed whispers and sharp glances. All in all the port gave off a very unnerving, very creepy feel.

Seto immediately recognized it as the port they at stopped at some time ago after they'd left Ribon, where Crow had picked him up a crutch to use while his leg healed. Seto was once again not permitted to leave the boat while Crow went into the festering place, but since he was able to walk this time he'd made his way to the main deck to get a better look at it. The first thing he saw was a large, crudely carven sign proudly proclaiming the port as Bloodstone.

Seto shivered despite the warm temperature as he looked at the port from the safety of the ship and pulled his coat closer to himself. The place was literally crawling with vermin in his left eye. Stray dogs, small and large wandered about between people's fires while various birds pecked at the ground. Nothing like what Vulture had turned into back in Garnet, thankfully, but something in the back of his mind told him that just because he couldn't see it _did not mean it wasn't there in the port somewhere_. Seto shivered at the thought as another unsettling feeling came over him, as if he was being watched. The maroon haired boy looked around and caught a large dog with glowing yellow eyes staring at him. Seto blinked and found himself under the gaze of a tall, rough looking man with long, uneven chopped dark hair. His clothes were filthy and a few of the darker look stains looked almost…crusty, even from a distance.

The man gave him a crooked smile "He~ey cutie! What's a pretty girl like you doing up there?" The man gave a leer "You look lonely, beautiful, how about you join me down here?"

Seto shook his head furiously and backed away from the side of the boat.

When Crow came back later he found Seto sitting in their room with all of the windows shut and the curtains pulled closed.

"What's wrong?" The pirate asked, kneeling next to where the maroon haired sat on the bed.

"Th-There was a g-guy by the ship e-earlier when I was on deck…" Seto flinched slightly when Crow narrowed his eyes at him "…H-He was kinda scary…"

Crow gave a sigh, taking Seto's hand and gently running his gloved thumb over his skin. "That's why I told you to stay down here…did he say anything?" The pirate asked.

"H-He thought I was a girl and was t-trying to get me off the ship…and he was a dog! N-Not a real dog, b-b-but in the white vision he was…" Seto fumbled out.

Crow rolled his eyes slightly at the first explanation while also resisting the urge to go find that guy and pound his face in. And while he didn't quite know what it meant he knew that the man being a dog was serious, which did worry him a little.

He flashed Seto a grin "Well, don't you worry about him anymore. He comes anywhere near you and he'll have me to deal with." He stopped, leaning up and catching Seto's lips with his own. The maroon haired boy made a surprised noise, but he clumsily kissed the pirate back.

The moment was interrupted by a forced sounding cough at the door. Pulling away, Crow stood and glared at Ren and Zen who were standing in the door.

"We're ready to leave port…" Zen reported stoically, minus the undertone of amusement in his voice "If you're ready to, at least."

Seto blushed and stood up. Crow rolled his eyes "Yes, we're fine to leave." Crow said, waving his hand "Let's get out of this stingy place."

* * *

Travel Day: 17

If there was one thing that Seto had noticed about Sai since she had joined the crew, it was that she was significantly politer when she wasn't being chased or arrested. She got on well enough with the crew, and it seemed Ren was more or less happy to have another girl aboard the ship after the two of them got past their differences. Sai spent a lot of time discussing the aspects of the Moon Tribe's treasure with Zen, and he'd seen her and Toyo speaking in whispers more than a few times while casting unseen glances in a certain silver haired girl's direction. Crow was…tolerating her presence, which wasn't exactly an improvement, but wasn't exactly bad either. The cats didn't even seem to have a problem with her; as a matter of fact Hoshi seemed to love the eye patch wearing girl and was prone to sleeping on her lap.

Seto almost felt bad for suspecting her. It was hard to not feel unsettled around Sai when he had no idea what her motives or feelings were.

And he always caught her looking at him. He'd be talking to someone or just wandering around the ship and he'd turn and catch her eye. She'd look away and walk off. Seto honestly didn't know what to make of it.

"Why…why are you always looking at me, Sai?" It was afternoon, a little bit after lunch, and Seto had caught her watching him again. Zen had declined her invitation to go over lore because he had other work to do and Seto had managed to catch her before she went off with somebody.

She blinked at him curiously "I don't know what you mean."

Seto flushed slightly "W-Well…I mean, um, sometimes it looks like you're staring at me, a-and when I notice you look a-away."

"Oh…that." Sai shrugged "Sorry, didn't mean to creep you out or anything." She apologized "You're fascinating, that's all."

Catching the confused look on the maroon haired boy's face, she elaborated "What you can do, first of all, is fascinating on its own. And then there's your circumstances. You're probably the least fitting person to be on a pirate ship, but here you are and from what I've seen you can play the part well." Sai leaned forward to look him in the eyes, and instinctively he took a step back "It's all very odd, I can't help but be a bit curious about you." She finished, giving a small smile before she walked off.

Seto stared after her for a bit, not sure how he should take that revelation. Later that day, though, when Seto caught her looking at him again, it didn't worry him quite as much, though he wondered whether or not if that was an improvement.

* * *

Travel Day: 21

Ren refused to leave her quarters today. Her door was firmly locked and all of her windows were pulled shut and covered. It worried Seto to no end, but he understood the silver haired girl's actions. They were passing by Ribon today and even at the distance they were from the island Seto felt an ominous chill when he caught sight of the seven bell towers. The maroon haired boy kept having to remind himself that the…thing, woman, girl, monster that had nearly killed them was dead.

He reminded Ren, too, but it wasn't until much later that evening when the accursed island was falling away behind them that she left her room again.

* * *

Travel Day: 24

"Toyo, have you been wearing a hat or something?" Ren asked suddenly. Toyo gave her an odd look "Or have you been inside a lot?"

"No…" The red head answered slowly, feeling just a little bit suspicious "Why are you asking?"

"You're hair's darker than I remember it being." Ren replied promptly "And I read somewhere that if you're out of the sun or you keep your hair covered that happens."

The red haired boy laughed nervously "I think you're seeing things, Ren." He told her, earning a glare for his comment. He didn't pay it much mind and walked away, forcefully pulling Zen out of a conversation with Sai as he passed the two headed towards his cabin.

Later that evening as Seto was headed towards supper, he found himself being pulled into a room and the door shut behind him. He found himself looking up into a pair of blue, brown tinged eyes.

"Toyo?"

"Seto, how does my hair look?" Stepping back to an arm's length, Toyo looked at him expectantly.

Seto frowned "It looks like it always does." He answered. Honestly, Seto almost thought it looked brighter than normal.

The red haired boy's shoulders sagged in relief "Great. Thanks." He grinned "You ready to head to dinner, then?" He asked, pulling the door opening and walking out of the room with a hop in his step.

Seto watched after him for a few seconds, horribly confused, before his stomach growled. The maroon haired boy quickly followed after Toyo, and soon the odd event that had just occurred fell to the back of his mind.

* * *

Travel Day: 27

Crow had very quickly become accustomed to waking up in the middle of the night because of something Seto was doing in his sleep. The other boy moved around a lot and hogged the blankets some nights, while on other nights Crow would wake up to find the maroon haired boy curled up next to his side. Something else the pirate found out about Seto when he was asleep was that he was very nightmare prone, and Crow had long since settled into the role of comforting Seto after he woke up after he had that revelation.

This turned out to be a night for nightmares and not for adorable cuddling.

Crow awoke to Seto's normal tossing and turning, but he heard the faint whimpering that indicated that his friend was not sleeping as peacefully as he should have been. With a small sigh, Crow sat up and reached to light his bedside lamp. A yellow glow filled the room as Crow gently shook Seto awake.

The maroon haired boy awoke with a start, his eyes darting around as if he didn't quite know where he was. The moment his eyes landed on Crow, however, he seemed to relax and immediately wrapped his arms around the pirate in an almost desperate hug. Crow held him close, waiting until he felt Seto's heart quit ramming against his chest and for Seto to loosen his grip.

When he finally did, he pushed Seto back a little so he could look at the night shirt clad boy. "Bad dream?" He asked, redundantly because he already knew the answer, but asked anyways for Seto's sake. The boy in his arms nodded "Do you wanna talk about it?"

Seto was quiet for about a minute, probably getting his thoughts back in working order "I-I was in that c-cage again, the glass one. B-But then I wasn't, and there were p-people everywhere and f-fires everywhere, and fires were going out a-and people were on the ground, a-and-" Seto stopped suddenly, his voice catching in his throat. Crow pulled him back close, rubbing his back soothingly.

"Hey, hey, it's ok now. It was just a dream. It can't do anything to you." He whispered in Seto's ear reassuringly. He felt Seto nod into his chest, and heard him say something that ended up muffled against Crow's shirt. "What was that?"

"Wh-what if it wasn't a dream?" Seto asked again, louder this time.

Crow blinked "That seems really unlikely, Seto." He ruffled the maroon haired boy's hair gently "People don't just make gigantic glass cages, for one thing."

He felt Seto smile slightly at that. Pushing him back again, Crow placed a kiss on his forehead "Feeling better?"

"Mhm." Seto yawned. Crow rolled his eyes, leaning over and blowing his lamp out. He wrapped his arms around Seto and pulled him back down onto the bed. He didn't let go all night, and Seto went back to sleep soundly.

* * *

Travel Day: 32

"What do you think that means, anyways?" Zen asked, his voice thoughtful as he leaned over the array of literature before him on the table. "An inland sea?"

"Maybe it's a clue?" Sai suggested, leaning back in the chair she had claimed for herself. They were currently in the chart room and all around them items used for navigating the sea swayed with the motion of the waves or glinted in the setting sun's light.

"A location, maybe?" He mused with a frown. "The sea goes inland in dozens of places, though. It seems a bit vague to be a hint of any sort."

"Riddle, maybe?" Sai asked, lacing her fingers behind her head as she looked out the window "You get anything else from that novel?"

Zen shook his head, the frown on his face quickly becoming an agitated one "Besides the title and the first paragraph, 'inland sea' doesn't show up anywhere else in the entire book. It's about a man who went with the Moon Tribe fleeing the hierarchy of the Moon and the kid he meets along the way. The first paragraph is actually the end of the story-"

"Telling about when the kid dies." Sai interjected, causing the silver haired teen to glance at her sharply "I read the book too, you know. He dies when the people who want all the treasure back with the hierarchy invade and the last thing the main character guy does before they get him too is bury his friend somewhere where he can see the sky."

Silence stretched between them for a time. And Sai, wondering what the cause of it was, turned her attention to the boy curiously. He had a faraway, almost glossed look in his eyes "Zen?"

Mahogany colored eyes blinked, losing their glossed appearance as their owner came back to his senses. "Sorry about that, I was just thinking." Zen said with a small shake to clear his head "You know, when I first told Seto about the legend of the Moon Tribe he got really upset over it. I think I know a bit better now that his reaction might have been warranted."

Curious as ever about the sudden change in topic, Sai leaned forward resting her elbows on her knees "Why do you say that?"

"No reason, really. I think I understand in a roundabout way why he reacted." Zen explained, holding up 'The Inland Sea' with its cover facing the one eyed girl "If my theory about Seto is correct, then he was upset hearing the legend because at some level he's emotionally attached to it. He probably wouldn't fair all that well if he read this. I gave myself a headache reading it."

Sai let out a small laugh at that comment "You gave yourself a headache?" She asked.

Zen rolled his eyes at her amused tone "The story irritated me." He admitted with a small sigh "Just thinking of the number of people who were probably killed over that treasure unnerves me, and the amount of greed that the hierarchy on the Moon seemed to be consumed by disgusts me. I'm sure there was a way they could have compromised and not lost needless lives."

Sai looked quietly at him for a few seconds, adopting a look that was very similar to the one she had on her face when they first spoke to each other.

"You're staring, again." He clarified.

And once again Sai gave him a sort of odd, enigmatic smile. "Sorry, you're just so serious for a kid. It's kinda weird." She said standing up.

"You're only a few years older than me, quit calling me kid." Zen said pointedly, rolling his eyes.

Sai walked over to where he was seated and ruffled his hair before plucking the novel from his hand and setting it down "Respect your elders. Get out of this room for a bit and go play with your friends." And with that, Sai followed her own advice and left the chart room.

Zen sighed, setting his chin on the table and looking at all the materials scattered all over it. Maybe Sai was right, he decided, setting his cheek on the cool, wooden surface. Maybe he should take a break and go see what his friends were doing.

He could feel another headache coming on, anyways.

* * *

Travel Day: 35

Bells began ringing as they approached Garnet and Seto could hear them even though they were still a few miles from shore. It was early afternoon and the sea was sparkling as they sailed across it, the sun high and unobstructed in the clear blue sky. Seto could see people milling about the docks looking like they were in no hurry despite the warning bells and wondered if they recognized the ship or just didn't care. And though he couldn't really tell from this far out it seemed like the town had recovered from the fiasco last time the Black Wing's pirates had been in their port.

Beside him Crow leaned on the ship's railing, his big black cat jumping up to sit next to him. He was staring straight ahead at Garnet with a small frown on his face, no doubt also remembering what had happened last time he'd been in town. He'd seen similar looks on Toyo's and Zen's faces when it had been announced that they would be stopping in the small town for supplies and other such things and it crossed his mind that even though they hadn't run into the pair, Zen and Toyo most likely helped raid Garnet under Vulture's orders.

Ren was excited though, and that seemed to bring up their moods.

Seto reached over and took a hold of Crow's hand. The pirate started at the sudden contact, but he smiled over at Seto briefly before turning his attention back towards their destination.

"I have this unshakable feeling of déjà vu." He admitted with a small laugh. "Except this time instead of dodging a phony storm we're stopping by for a visit." Next to him the black cat knocked its head against his arm. It was almost as if it was trying to tell the purple pirate something. Whatever it was, though, went completely over Crow's head as he thought the cat was trying to get his attention. He scratched behind its ears absently, and if it was possible the cat looked indignant.

Seto smiled softly "That's not a bad thing though."

Crow nodded slightly, glancing at their entwined hands with a smile of his own. He didn't tell Seto what else he was thinking then; that it felt odd that he had sailed away from Garnet with a new, but cute, friend and they were returning together in love. It almost made him want to thank that stupid fleabag for getting them to dock in the town, but he ignored the temptation due to the fact that he was sure that Ren would hear about it somehow. Her uncanny ability to understand cats still threw him for a total loop.

By the time the ship made it to port later that evening the bells had quit tolling. Seto didn't really know why, but suspected that the townspeople themselves had something to do with it if the warm greeting they received when they docked was anything to go by. Fishermen and sailors that Seto vaguely recognized waved as they stepped off the ship and as they entered town they were met with welcoming looks and a few warm, shouted greetings. Seto couldn't help the smile that broke out onto his face as they made their way around town.

"First thing's first!" Ren said loudly, calling the attention of the rest of the group. The entire crew hadn't flooded into Garnet since they didn't want to cause a scare, but Toyo, Zen and even Sai had tagged along with the trio. The black cat, Batty and Hoshi had also departed the ship, but Seto had no idea where the felines had wandered off to. "I need to go check on my cats."

Toyo snorted "Seriously?" He asked incredulously. Ren stared at him with a serious expression and he signed in a resigned matter. "Of course you're serious, they're cats."

Zen gave his friend a sympathetic smile and patted him on the shoulder "I'm glad you're slowly learning." He teased lightly.

Toyo shot him an indignant look and shrugged him off "No one asked you." He shot back, rolling his eyes. Ignoring Zen, he looked over at Crow and Seto "You two coming with?" He asked.

Seto shook his head, and Crow replied "We're headed for the town square."

"You guys don't mind, do you?" Seto asked "I-I don't want you feeling left behind or anything."

Ren shook her head, a sly smile forming on her lips "No, no, you two go on." She insisted, walking over and gently pushing the couple in the right direction "Go and have fun. We'll meet back up at the shop later. You still remember how to get there, right?"

Seto nodded "Yup! I still remember the way, mostly anyways."

Ren shook her head at that and let out a sort of mock sigh "Geez, you're hopeless."

The maroon haired boy gave her an indignant look. Crow rolled his eyes at their antics and took hold Seto's hand, leading him off from the group "We'll me you guys back at the shop!" He called back at them.

"Have a good time, Captain!" Toyo teasingly called after them "Don't be too rough!" Zen slapped him over the head. The red head shot him a look, but his attention was quickly drawn away from his silver haired friend as he took note of the fourth member of their group. "Are you coming with us Sai?"

The dark haired girl shook her head "Nah, I've never been here. I was planning on walking around a little. Where's this shop of yours' at?" Sai asked.

"It depends on where you're at in town, but for the most part if you try heading towards the center and avoid taking left turns and stick to back alleys you'll stumble into it." Ren explained. "If you end up in the town square you've gone too far and probably took a left somewhere, so just keep to right turns."

"Got it…I think." Sai frowned, trying to understand the somewhat vague directions before giving up with a shrug. "Whatever, I'll keep an eye out for it. If I can't find it I'll just head back to the ship." She said flippantly, waving her hand as she turned to walk off.

"Well, and then there were three." Zen observed glancing at their little trio. He looked at Ren curiously "So, where are your cats at anyways?"

Ren turned on her heel and started walking, leaving Zen and Toyo only the option of blindly following after her. "The town fortune teller's been keeping an eye on them for me." She explained from ahead of them. There was a bounce in her step as she walked almost as if she was about to break out and start skipping towards their destination. The boys were almost sure they'd never seen her in such a good mood, ever, though Toyo mused he saw something a lot like it when he bought her that book on cats back in Merchant City.

And it was quite obvious that it was the cats that put her in such a good mood. As she led them through town down seemingly aimless pathways she talked about them; how they were, how much she was looking forward to seeing them, things she remembered from the last time she'd seen them…

"You really like cats." Toyo pointed out again as she went off on a tangent about a big, fluffy black and orange cat she had acquired, called a Cymric, and whether or not it had had its kittens yet.

Ren stopped walking and blinked at him, as if breaking out of a daze. It seemed like she had gotten lost in her own excited rambling. "You've said that before." She told him with a frown "Why do you point out the obvious so much?"

Toyo shrugged "I'm just curious why you like them so much." Ren opened her mouth to tell him that she had answered that question before, but he cut her off with- "I mean, I understand you liking 'em and all that, lots of people like cats obviously, but you're kinda extreme about it." Toyo looked at her earnestly "Why is that?"

Ren glared at him steadily for a few seconds before she turned around and started walking again "Why do you always ask such stupid questions?" She snapped "Really Zen, how do you put up with him?"

Zen held his hands up defensively "Please do not get me involved in your lovers' spat."

Ren whirled on him red faced, though whether it was from anger or embarrassment the silver haired pirate hadn't the faintest clue. "This is not a lovers' spat!" The silver haired girl crossed her arms, grumbling viciously under her breath as she led them around a corner.

Toyo snickered near silently behind her. Zen rolled his eyes at both of them. "Since when were you so observant of other people?" He asked quietly, trying to not attract the attention and wrath of their guide.

Toyo looked at him in disbelief "For one, I've always been observant, Zen." He pointed out quietly in a half hearted, mock insulted tone "For two, it doesn't take a whole ton to notice she's sort of obsessive about cats."

The silver haired teen smirked, "Are you sure you just haven't been paying extra attention recently?"

Toyo's face flushed red and he sputtered "W-What!"

Zen laughed at his friend's reaction as Ren stopped a little farther ahead of them in front of a small, unassuming wooden building. Or shack, really, considering its size and the shape it was in. There were sheets hung in front of the windows where it appeared the glass had been smashed out and a nearly matching curtain was hanging in the door-less doorframe. The wood was splintered in a few places, scorched in others, and in a few spots you could tell where newer wood had been used to repair structural damage probably caused during the raid a few months ago. Toyo and Zen glanced at each other as Ren pushed the curtains back worriless and hesitantly they followed in behind her.

Almost instantly Ren was swarmed by dozens of different breeds of cats.

The two teen boys stood there dumbly as their silver haired friend cooed and smiled over the felines, giving each individual attention and seemingly conversing with them. Although they didn't quite understand what was being said by either party they did manage to catch that apparently the fortune teller who owned the shack they were was out in town. They lost the meaning of the conversation after that.

"She's being so…mellow." Zen observed quietly, sounding almost shocked.

"And she isn't screaming or yelling or anything…" Toyo added, sounding equally surprised and confused. He frowned and looked over at Zen "…I kinda wanna do something to piss her off to make sure it's still her over there."

Zen choked back a laugh, coughing into his hand as Ren shot them a mixed curious/suspicious look.

They stayed at the shop for about an hour and the fortune teller didn't return despite the fact that it was starting to get late. However Batty and Crow's black cat, Keir (Ren helpfully informed the two confused pirates) made an appearance and walked back with them to Ren's shop after a few long, heartfelt goodbyes and promises to come and visit again soon. The trip was surprisingly uneventful and with Ren as their guide they found their way to their destination easily.

The shop itself was in a much better state then it had been a few months ago. The glass in the windows had been replaced and walking inside, a familiar bell jingled. Ren stood stock still, looking over her shop. New tables were set up around the room with varying items set about. The items themselves seemed near worthless; a dog collar on one table, a small pink baby sock on another, a broken milk bottle, and a dirty shoe were seen with just a cursory glance around. It seemed that after she'd left the people of Garnet had been rebuilding her shop to its former self, a place to look at odd things with no real intent to buy them.

Ren swiped at her eyes, rubbing them as she felt them start to water. She forced herself to not pay attention to the shop, but to the more pressing (and somewhat amusing) fact that the rest of the group had beaten them there.

Crow and Sai stood silently on opposite sides of the room with Seto standing somewhat helplessly in between the two with Hoshi by his feet playing with his pants leg. The atmosphere was so tense you could have cut through it with a knife.

"Hey! You guys have fun in town?" Not that Toyo noticed, of course.

Seto looked immediately relieved when they showed up and nodded at the red head's question "Yeah, it was nice. How were the cats?" He asked.

Ren beamed "They're all happy. They missed me though. And they really missed your cooking. When did you all get here?"

"Crow and I just got here a little bit ago." Seto said, casting a small glance in the quiet pirate's direction.

"I got here a little before these two." Sai chimed in, inclining her head towards the small fluff ball on the floor "The cat was here when I got here."

Ren hummed in reply, walking over and gently picking up Hoshi. Her look quickly changed to a worried one. "That's weird…" she mumbled.

"What?" Zen asked as he joined her.

"I don't think Hoshi's gotten any bigger since I found it." Ren stated, gently rubbing the kitten's back with her thumb "It was about this size when I found it, and that was awhile ago."

"That's bad, isn't it?" Crow finally spoke up, not moving from where he was but watching from where he stood "Don't cats grow pretty fast?"

"Yes. With all that's been going on I haven't really been keeping an eye on Hoshi so I guess I didn't notice." Ren frowned "It should definitely be bigger though."

"Can't you just ask it what's up?" Crow asked.

Ren shook her head "No, I've tried, but it's still too young. It's like talking to a baby, all I hear is gibberish." Ren explained, setting the small feline down. Almost immediately after its feet touched the ground it scampered over to where Sai stood and started playing with one of her loose, low hanging bandages.

"Well, maybe it's because it's like Seto." Crow said, shooting the pair a look as Sai tried to get the small feline to leave her bandages alone "I mean, it isn't like that little ball of fluff was normal to begin with. Maybe it doesn't grow like a normal cat?"

Ren hummed, thinking that theory over and thinking back to what Crow and Seto had told them. Since the revelation of Seto's ability they'd been informed about the numerous exploits behind the scenes that they weren't capable of seeing, including Hoshi's gray fire and the act of biting Vulture's arm off when he'd been holding the kitten hostage. They were somewhat wary of the kitten after hearing that, but it was really difficult to stay apprehensive about a kitten.

"But Seto grew." Ren pointed out "He got older and he matured. The kitten hasn't changed at all…"

"It is sort of strange…" Seto agreed with a nod.

Sai sighed loudly from her spot across the room, catching everyone's attention "Is there really any point in talking about this?" She asked, picking up the topic of conversation and petting the kitten's head "Isn't it obvious? We're not going to figure out anything about the cat until we figure out more about Seto."

Zen frowned at her, "That may be true, Sai, but if we found out things about the cat, wouldn't that help lead us to more answers about Seto?"

"That seems pretty obvious too." Crow commented with a roll of his eyes.

The dark haired girl shot him a glare, but ignored him and answered Zen. "I agree with you on that, but don't you also agree that they're both too complicated right now for us to be able to find an answer? Throwing around random guesses like this isn't going to solve a thing."

The silver haired boy frowned at her response. After thinking for a few seconds he gave a slow nod. "True enough. But having guesses is better than not having anything to go on at all regardless if it solves anything."

Sai huffed, irritated, "Fine, whatever, waste your time." She said with a wave of her hand gesturing them to continue. The eye patch wearing girl hoisted herself up onto the table closest to her, jostling some of the items on it. Silence filled the shop as no one was quite sure how to restart the discussion after that exchange. Sai's watchful eye was watching them patiently, waiting for them to continue which made it even more difficult.

"M-Maybe we should save this for when it isn't so late." Seto suggested, trying to diffuse the situation "We've got a lot of time to talk about it, we don't have to figure everything out all at once…"

As if on cue, Toyo let out a very loud yawn. The red head stretched his arms above his head "Yeah, let's tuck in for the night." He agreed. Looking at Ren, he asked "You have space for us here, or should we head back to the ship for the night?"

"I think I've got enough room." Ren said after a pause "Sai and I can have the couches in the back room, and the boys can all sleep in Seto's old room."

Everyone in the room nodded at the arrangements. Since everyone was in agreement, Ren led them deeper into the store, only hesitating a moment before entering the sitting room. It too was fixed up like the front of the shop; the shelving was all put back in place, the carpets had been replaced, and the broken furniture all repaired. Almost undoubtedly under the carpets were bloodstains that refused to come out of the wood, but the silver haired girl was in no mood to find out.

Seto caught her eye and gave her a soft, encouraging look before he walked ahead, leading the other boys towards his room so the girls could get some sleep.

The night passed quietly, minus the shenanigans that occurred in Seto's room.

* * *

Travel Day: 36

"Seto, what's the port closest to your old man's house?" Crow asked as they set off from Garnet.

"Hmm, I think Topaz." Seto answered after a moment of thought. Crow visibly relaxed and the maroon haired boy looked at him curiously "Why?"

Crow scratched at the back of his head and cracked a small smile "I was worried you were gonna say Lapis." He told the other boy "We kinda aren't too welcome there still."

Seto rolled his eyes at the purple clad pirate "I know, I remember. They were still cleaning up when I passed through there last, you know." He pointed out.

Crow grinned at that.

* * *

Travel Day: 42

Crow felt uneasy. He'd looked all over the ship nearly, and he couldn't find Seto anywhere. He hadn't seen the maroon haired boy since earlier that afternoon and while he knew nothing could happen to Seto while he was on Crow's ship, he still didn't like not knowing where he was. The fact that he hadn't seen Sai around today just made him worry all the more. The Trouble Making Trio (as he had mentally started calling Ren, Zen, and Toyo) hadn't seen hide nor hair nor ridiculously colored jacket of the two of them either.

The pirate captain sighed, deciding to try the lower decks where their supplies were stored. He knew Seto didn't generally come down here since he didn't have a reason to, but it was one of the only places he hadn't checked yet on the ship. Almost immediately as he descended into the lower decks of the Black Wing's ship, he caught the smell of something that was either burnt, or burning. Crow quickened his pace down the stairs slightly panicked. Was his ship on fire?

Once he'd arrived at the base of the stairs the burning smell was stronger, but there was no smoke from what he could see. Bemused, the pirate made his way gingerly around stacks of crates and bunches of barrels that made walking around down there almost like going through a maze. It didn't help that it was dim down there, and even though his eyes adjusted rather quickly it was hard to not bump into things.

Ahead of him it got a little brighter, a blue sort of light casting wild shadows on the hull of the ship. And then suddenly, the light was out.

"Hey! Why did you do that?" Crow blinked. Seto?

"Well if we keep it lit, you can't really practice can you?" Crow struggled for a few seconds trying to place a name with that voice, but he was almost half sure that it belonged to Sai.

He heard Seto huff in the darkness, but the conversation had apparently come to a stop. Crow frowned, sneaking closer to where he'd seen the odd blue light and heard the voices. Was this where Seto had been the entire time? What was he doing? And most importantly, why was Sai with him? The pirate bristled slightly, coming to a stop as the light came on again this time much brighter.

"AH!" He heard Seto cry out. That was really all the incentive Crow needed to rush out of his place in the shadows and into view.

"What is going on here?" He asked sharply.

Both Sai and Seto jumped, the slightly shocked looks on their faces lit up by a candle burning a blue flame in between them.

"C-Crow..!" Crow watched with a raised eyebrow as Seto continued opening and closing his mouth after that little exclamation, as if he was trying to find the words to answer. Crow glanced briefly over at Sai, who was sitting cool and collected now that the shock of Crow's sudden appearance had worn off. She seemed quite content to let Seto attempt to answer his question. The pirate rolled his eyes and decided that while his friend tried to find a way to connect words into a sentence, he look at what they had been up to.

The floor between the two was covered with scorch marks, candle wax, and the apparent remains of a few used up candles. The one that was lit between them seemed to be already half used up and the blue flame on top was making wax dribble down the sides.

"Did you light that?" Crow asked, indicating the candle with a tilt of his head. Seto closed his mouth and a hesitated for a second before he nodded.

"I-I was practicing how to control my flames." He explained "Sai said it would be a good idea in case something ever happened and you guys weren't there to help. Since I can't really control them w-we were starting small…"

"…By hiding down here and lighting candles." Crow finished, sighing slight. He pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head "And you didn't think to tell me?" He asked, looking up and looking into Seto's eyes "I didn't know where you were at, you had me worried."

"Where was he going to go? Out of town?" Crow quit gazing at Seto long enough to shoot Sai and a glare. The woman just smiled a little and stood up, brushing off her legs "I think that's enough for today. I'll let you two have your moment." She said with a wave of her hand, ignoring their respective reactions (Seto's embarrassment and Crow rolling his eyes).

She paused at the foot of the stairs and turned back to look the way she'd come. She saw a pair of shadows quite close together before the candle was seemingly blown out.

* * *

Travel Day: 48

They were passing the Lapis Navy Port, and Crow had been sure to make sure they were keeping a safe distance from the navy base. The entire ship seemed tense as they sailed past even though all of the ships appeared to be docked.

Despite the tension, when Seto looked over at Crow, he found the pirate grinning a little bit.

* * *

Travel Day: 53

"Finally." Toyo commented, watching as the ship slowly grew closer to port in Topaz. He turned to glance incredulously at Seto "It took forever to sail this far, how'd you even make it to Garnet on foot?"

Seto laughed a little. "I don't know, luck, I guess?" He answered, leaning on the rail to look out at their destination. "We still gotta walk to the house yet."

Toyo's face fell a little at that. "I thought you said it was in Topaz?"

"I said it was close to Topaz." The maroon haired boy corrected "My grandfather wasn't a really social person. He lived pretty isolated away from everyone. His house is a ways away from town."

Toyo sighed "And we're going to have to walk?" He grumbled, letting his shoulders sag in a dramatic fashion. Seto just laughed at him again.

"Hey, you two!" Toyo and Seto turned. Zen was standing there with his arms crossed and looked like he was about to start lecturing them. "Go and get your stuff around. We're making port in a few hours and I don't want you rushing around last minute and forgetting something."

Zen walked off after that, presumably to take his own advice Seto assumed. Toyo rolled his eyes.

"Like it's going to take us a few hours to do that?"

End Chapter

First order of business! Wow, the site got a face lift.

Second order of business! Hi, I'm alive. The story is also alive! You have my normal apologies for my laziness (and on a filler chapter at that, shame on me). This has actually been sitting near complete for awhile, but I started procrastinating around day 35...

Anyways! Wow, this was long filler. But it does several things. It sets up sort of a time frame for approximately the amount of time the story has been taking place, it gives reminders of important plot things and foreshadows stuff, and it gives Toyo and Zen eye colors. Which isn't incredibly important right now, but when I noticed it bothered me since it'll come up later.

Anyways! I don't have much to say on this one, besides that I don't like the set up much. I can promise that the next chapter will definitely not take near as long as this one did, though.

Thanks to everyone who read last chapter, and thanks to everyone who also reviewed! As usual reviews are loved, and helpful criticisms are always appreciated.

Until we meet again~

Sleepy ;D


	27. The Lonely House

Chapter 27 "The Lonely House"

The Topaz port was abuzz with activity when the Black Wing's ship docked later that afternoon. Not abuzz with busy people, mind you, but abuzz over the pirate ship that had decided to make port in their town. Topaz was a rather small community that most people had to look on a map for and while stories of pirates weren't uncommon, seeing a real life pirate ship was. As word spread around town the docks continued to fill up with people eager to catch a glimpse.

Suffice to say, when Crow saw the mob of people converging on the dock, he was worried. He was even more worried after they had docked and departed the ship, only to be met with the apparent mayor of Topaz and a much larger group of people than he had anticipated. The pirate was immensely relieved when he realized that none of the citizens seemed to be wielding torches and pitchforks and to know that the mayor just wanted to know why they were at his port. It was at this point that Crow slipped into his pirate captain persona and explained that they were there to go to a house a little ways out of town.

The mayor frowned slightly at hearing that, "I regret to inform you, but the owner of that house passed some months ago and his grandson left not long after. I'm afraid there's no one there now. If you had business with him, you might try your luck at finding his grandson."

Crow resisted the urge to roll his eyes and at his side, Seto stepped forward a little and smiled a little at the mayor.

"That would be me, sir. I'm his grandson." The maroon haired boy explained, causing a brief look of confusion to come over the mayor's face. The man stared at Seto for a few moments, adjusting his glasses after a moment. He broke out into a smile and walked closer, slapping the teen on the shoulder.

"Seto! I didn't recognize you, boy! My, you certainly look different from the last time I saw you…but what on Earth are you wearing?" He asked, indicating the bright turquoise coat. He gave a quick glance around at the pirates and their various odd attires and hummed a little to himself, wondering aloud "Is this how pirates dress now?"

Crow coughed, bring the attention of the conversation back to himself and adjusted his awesome hat, "So, it's no problem if we stay at your docks while we go to the house?"

Still smiling, the mayor nodded his assent. "Stay as long as you like. We don't have a lot here in Topaz, but feel free to make use of our services while you're here." With that, the man turned to address the group that had come to see the pirates and their ship and told them to go back going about their own business and let the pirates be on their way. Slowly the crowd began to disperse, though people still lingered around in small clusters.

The mayor turned back to them "If you run into any trouble, don't be afraid to ask me for anything." He said.

Crow eyed him a little skeptically. "Why are you being so nice?"

The man shrugged, offering another smile. Crow decided that this mayor was a very smiley sort of man, but he was a little surprised at his words. "Well if Seto's with you, you can't be all that bad." With that, the man gave a wave and walked away. Crow looked after him for a minute before turning to Seto with a look of disbelief.

"How do you DO that?" He asked, inclining his head in the direction the mayor had walked off, "I mean, I get it's hard to not trust that cute face of yours, but still." Crow crossed his arms, watching Seto blush at the sudden compliment and laugh a little nervously to himself. The pirate smiled a little inwardly at that. Getting Seto to blush had quite quickly become his favorite past time after he discovered how adorable it made his boyfriend look.

The pirate didn't get an answer to his question as Seto just let out a nervous laugh, and said "W-We should get going. It'll take a few hours to get there."

Toyo let out a groan behind them "Man…why couldn't your old man live closer to town? I get he was an anti-social hermit, but still."

"People of intelligence always do their best work alone." Zen commented, rolling his eyes at his red haired friend. "The town's people seem to be a nice group, but they're obviously very nosy. Can you really blame him for living so far away?" The silver haired teen asked, shooting a look at a group of gossips that seemed to be trying to eavesdrop on them. The group quickly dispersed.

Toyo gave a shrug as he watched them go, "Guess I can't, really." He answered.

"You two done yet?" Crow asked, "Seto said this is trip is gonna take us a few hours, you can waste your breath talking while we're walking. Ren." The silver haired girl perked up at the mention of her name and came over away from the group of pirates she'd been speaking to, "I need you to stay behind for this one. Make sure we get stocked up on supplies while we're here and keep the crew out of trouble. Can you handle that?"

Ren pouted just a bit, obviously unhappy with being left behind on the adventure into Seto's past, but she nodded regardless. "Of course I can. You wouldn't be leaving me behind if I couldn't, would you?" She asked confidently.

Crow rolled his eyes, "Well yes, probably. I'm just going to be a few hours off, I'll be close by for when you inevitably screw things up in my regrettable absence." He told her flatly, smirking at the glare that was quickly sent in his direction. Ren let out an irritated huff and quickly stalked off, barking out orders to the crew as she went. The pirate captain let out a small breath. Yes, everything would be fine with Ren in charge of everything.

Crow turned to survey the group that was going to the house. Seto was coming along for obvious reasons; he was the only one who knew the way to where they were going. That, and Crow couldn't see a reason why he shouldn't come along in the first place. They were going to his house after all. Toyo was mostly there for security. Crow wasn't expecting any problems, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Zen and Sai were along for their brains: if Seto's accounts were anything to go by they were investigating a genius's house. And while Crow was pretty smart in his own right, he only had a vague idea of what they might be looking for. And the two of them would have beat him if he hadn't let them come along.

"Is everyone ready?" Seto asked, looking around at everyone, "I know I've said this a few times, but it is a really long walk. We might not get there until sunset, and we might have to stay the night if it's too late when we get there…"

"So sleep over in the old abandoned house. Got it. I'm fine with that." Toyo quipped, shooting Seto a grin.

Zen smiled a little, "I don't think any of us are worried about staying in your old home, Seto. But I would like to get there before dark, so let's be off. Would you kindly take the lead?"

Seto beamed and gave an enthusiastic nod. "Yeah, let's go!"

* * *

The sun made its journey across the sky slowly. The small group walked along the dirt road with idle chatter filtering through bouts of silence. The road had gone straight for awhile before they'd met the edge of the island about an hour into their walk, at which point it began to curve. Seto had warned them around then that they wouldn't be following the road the entire trip and that, after a few miles, they were going to have to start trekking through the woodlands that were off to their right. He said they needed to keep an eye out for a landmark of sorts. Seto's grandfather had built his home very much off the beaten path in the middle of a field in the middle of the woods.

"Zen, when you inevitably grow old and become a hermit hoarding your wealth of knowledge, please don't live like Seto's grandpa," Toyo pleaded around when they hit the hour and a half mark, "Don't live in the middle of nowhere. Please."

The silver haired teen rolled his eyes, "No, Toyo, I'm not going to live in the middle of nowhere when I'm elderly," Toyo let out a sigh of relief, "I am going to find the smallest island identifiable on a map barely within reach of civilization and make my home there." Zen stately simply, smirking just a little when his best friend stared at him in utter disbelief.

"What! No, no I refuse to let this transpire. That is not happening," The red head stated resolutely, crossing his arms defiantly. He turned to the maroon haired boy walking a little behind him, "Seto, back me up on this."

Seto chuckled quietly, "Well, whatever Zen decides to do is up to him. If he wants to live on an island he will with or without your OK." Toyo's shoulders sagged dramatically upon hearing that, and the look on his face was one of pure betrayal. The purple eyed boy laughed again, "Though honestly, I sort of imagined old Zen as a teacher, or a professor at one of those gigantic fancy schools."

Toyo brought up a hand to his shin and let out a thoughtful hum, "I hadn't thought of that." He said after a moment, smiling a little as he let the idea make an image in his head, "Yeah, Zen would totally be one of those old miserly professors. The one that everyone's terrified-" The object of their conversation smacked Toyo over the head.

"I'm sure you have loads of experience with teachers like that." The silver haired teen commented dryly. Toyo scowled at him a little and rubbed the back of his head where he'd been struck. Seto looked at the red head curiously.

"So you went to a school like that, Toyo?" He asked. The red haired pirate looked a little surprised by his question and shook his head rather furiously after a moment.

"No. No actually. I've never been to school before, but I read about professors and stuff- stuff like that in some of Zen's books." Toyo said quickly, a little too quickly to the point that he tripped up over his own words during his explanation. Seto nodded, understanding easy enough.

The maroon haired boy opened his mouth, like he was about to say something, before he shut it slowly. He repeated this action about twice, and frowned each time. Both Toyo and Zen looked at him curiously, wondering what he was doing. "What do you think you'll do?" He asked suddenly, "When you're old, I mean. After all of this, after we find the treasure."

It was a loaded question, and not one any of them had expected to come out of such a light hearted conversation.

"What brought that on?" Toyo asked, brow furrowed in confusion.

Seto blushed and looked down at his feet, shoving his hands into his pockets nervously. "W-well I just kind of thought that since you've never been to school, after all this you might be able to go, y-y'know? And that just sort of made me start thinking about how everything's going to be when this is all done and o-over with…" Seto glanced back up at the pair, "Sorry, I just ruined the atmosphere didn't I?" He asked.

Toyo gave a slow shake of his head, "Well, I wouldn't say that…it's just sort of a random topic change. Not a bad one, I guess." He answered with a shrug.

"Have you been thinking about this a lot?" Zen asked, sending a curious look in Seto's direction. Seto shrugged.

"N-not a whole lot, but I have been thinking about it a little." The boy answered.

"I guess when everything's done and over with and we're all ridiculously rich from the treasure, I'll probably be a pirate for a little while longer before I settle down." Toyo stated. He smiled at Seto, and didn't stop until the other finally smiled back, "I don't know about you, but I'm going to find a good girl when I get older. We'll settle down somewhere where we can both work, we'll have a nice place to live, we'll start a family…" He trailed off confidently.

"…You'll stock shelves, you'll deal with her abusive attitude, you'll feed cats…" Zen added on teasingly, which earned him a punch to the arm from a very red faced red head. The silver haired teen turned his attention to Seto, who had been watching the scene with amusement, "What about you, Seto? What do you want to do after we've unraveled the mystery of your origins and become wealthy in the process?"

Seto's smile faltered a bit. He started frowning again after a moment and Toyo shot the silver haired teen a look. Zen shrugged. "I don't really know yet, actually." The maroon haired boy replied quietly, letting out a sigh, "I-I guess I'm kind of having a hard time thinking that one day all of this is going to be over…this is the most exciting thing I've ever done in my life and for good or bad I really don't want it to end." The teen admitted, letting his shoulders sag a little once all of the words are out. "I really don't know where I'm gonna be…"

A hand flopped onto his head. Seto jumped, and was a little caught off guard when that hand slid over to his shoulder and promptly pulled him against its owner. Seto looked up a little bemused at Crow, who was staring straight ahead at the road. "You're going to be with me, stupid." The pirate said, the tone of his voice leaving absolutely no room for argument. "I'm going to take you around the world and we'll hunt for treasure, and I'll show you everything you've been missing in your poor, sheltered life." The purple clad pirate looked down at him, a smile playing on his lips and in his eyes, "There'll be more adventures after this one ends, I promise."

Seto flushed a pretty shade of pink, but he started smiling again. There was a loud, obnoxious chorus of "Awwww…." Off to the side of them, courtesy of Toyo and Zen.

"Those two won't be with us. I'm going to leave them on an island somewhere." Crow whispered almost conspiratorially, shooting the two a glare as he let Seto out from under his arm. Crow managed to keep a grip on his hand, though, and immediately intertwined their fingers. Seto giggled a little at that and gave the pirate's hand a small squeeze. Crow quelled the urge to hug his boyfriend for being that adorable. Seriously, it was so unfair.

"If you boys are quite done…" Sai prompted, stopped a little ahead of them on the road. Crow had fooled himself into thinking she wasn't along on the trip for awhile, since she'd been almost completely silent for the entire trip so far. He kind of wished she'd go back to doing that. "Is this the landmark we were looking for?" The eye patch wearing girl gestured to the side of the road.

She was pointing at a decrepit building that was teetering dangerously on the edge of the road, right along the edge of the ocean. It looked to be an old rest stop of sorts, though it obviously had not been used in quite a long while. There was a single entrance and the door was lying on the ground right in front of it. And next to that was a metal water pipe sticking out of the ground. Toyo made a beeline for it.

"I don't think I even knew how thirsty I was until the prospect of water presented itself." He said, humbly kneeling before the pipe.

"We had water." Zen pointed out, but he was ignored as the red head excitedly turned the knob and stuck his head beneath the spout. Nothing happened. Toyo tilted his head so he was able to stare up the spout and started fiddling with the knob again. And still nothing happened. At this point his neck was getting sore from being at such an odd angle and he moved so that he was sitting normally in front of the pipe. Reaching forward he started to mess around with the knob again.

Jostling it actually had an effect this time. The pipe began shaking and after a moment it began spewing a dark, gross looking liquid. Toyo flailed backwards in surprise.

"W-What the hell? Isn't this supposed to be a water pipe? What is this gunk?"

"It looks like mud." Zen observed, tossing the red head a bottle of the water they'd brought along, which he started to chug gratefully. "Whatever water this pipe used to run to has obviously been contaminated by now, which isn't surprising. It's obvious no one has used this place in years." He concluded.

"I'd just be glad if I were you, Toyo. Aren't you happy it wasn't working while your head was under it?" Sai asked, the tone of her voice indicating that maybe she'd wished just the opposite had happened. Toyo visibly shuddered.

"Alright, alright. That's enough goofing around." Crow said, pulling a pocket watch out from his pocket and giving it a quick glance. "It's been about two hours since we left and we're making good time. And it's about another two hours through the woods until we get to the house, right?" Seto nodded. Toyo groaned. Crow slipped the pocket watch back into his pocket, "If we keep up a steady pace we might get there earlier than that. But most definitely it'll still be light out by the time we get there, so we don't have to worry on that front. We'll probably have to stay the night if we don't feel like walking back in the dark or if looking around takes too long."

"It would likely be beneficial to just stay overnight." Zen commented, "I don't doubt that there's going to be an awful lot of material for Sai and myself to go over, not to mention investigating anything else that might be there."

Crow nodded at this, "Alright then, that's settled. Everyone ready then?" He asked.

"Off into the deep dark woods we go!" Toyo chimed in enthusiastically, walking ahead of everyone.

Crow rolled his eyes. "Yes, off into the woods, tally ho." He added in a deadpan tone. Seto laughed and pulled him into the shadowy trees.

* * *

The forest was mostly silent, save for the sound of everyone's own footfalls on the dirt and whatever else they might be stepping on. Conversation had slowed to a halt about an hour in when weariness just began settling in on everyone and, despite what Crow would have liked, the pace slowed down just a bit too. He and Seto were ahead of everyone at this point and it wasn't just because the maroon haired boy was leading the way. The wearisome group was overjoyed when a field came into view at the edge of the forest.

The grass was long and overgrown, swaying in the light breeze that managed to get through the trees. Remnants of stone buildings laid about everywhere and gave off the impression that, at some point in time, maybe the field hadn't been quite so empty. Not so quiet. But whatever time that had been was long passed now.

The group waded through the grass towards their destination, a building that was a little ways off to the side of where they had entered the field at.

"That one, right there." Seto pointed out, directing their attention towards where they were going. He was pointing at what was left of what was once probably a beautiful two story house, but time had not been incredibly kind to it. The stone wall that was facing them had collapsed into a large pile of rubble, exposing parts of the wooden interior which had surprisingly not fallen with the wall. Bits of the curved roof seemed to have begun falling through. Plants had overtaken several spots on the building at this point, a giant trail of vegetation that stretched from top to bottom in some places.

As they got closer, Crow couldn't help but ask, "Are we sure it's safe to be walking around in there?"

Seto rolled his eyes at that and tugged the pirate captain ahead, "Of course it's safe. I was living there up until just a little while ago, remember?"

"Yeah, but you haven't been here in how many months?" Crow pointed out, "Some weird structural thing could have gone wrong." The pirate pouted just a little when his boyfriend just rolled his eyes again and continued trudging forward.

"This part of the house looks a little scary, but the other side should still be safe to go into." Seto told the group as they slowed to a stop in front of the building. Up close it appeared that the house was, in fact, split in two by a wall with a single door connecting the two sides. The side they were on was falling apart, but upon closer inspection there was actually nothing on either of the two floors that were visible through the broken wall.

The group climbed over the small mountain of rubble carefully, all of them marveling just a little over the fact that Seto was making his way over the fallen wall with a quick ease. He even helped Crow over one of the rougher spots, much to his embarrassment and everyone else's amusement. The sun was beginning to get low in the sky as everyone set foot in the building, signaling just how long a day it had been for some and how much time had actually passed since they left Topaz earlier that day. Seto turned to the group and his face was illuminated by the sunlight coming through the holes in the roof.

"Welcome to my house, everyone!"

End Chapter

Any particular guesses as to who wins the worst author award? Your first two guesses don't count. Unless you guessed me, then you're entirely correct. I am the worst author. It is me. Please go collect your prize. Seriously, I think I broke my old record for going so long without an update…and I am so sorry ._. I got distracted by school mainly, and other things that make much worse excuses (Like Homestuck, Hetalia, and Tumblr. Terrible excuses. Fantastic distractions).

ANYWAYS! The point here is that I'm alive, and full of writing vigor! Seriously, just for you all I have not just this chapter, but two more completely finished that I'm going to be post on Wednesday and Thursday. And I'm going to try my absolute hardest to get on an update schedule for everyone.

That's mostly it, actually. I don't have much commentary on this chapter since it's full of fun characterizations and such. Next chapter is going to be loads of fun though~

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to all of my ever patient readers (I adore you) and to everyone who is still following this story. Reviews and criticisms are always highly appreciated.

Until next time!

~Sleepy ;D


	28. Lamplight

Chapter 28 "Lamplight"

The group filed through the small entryway that seemed to lead from the crumbled side of the house to the friendlier, less falling apart side. They walked into what appeared to be a small, personal library of sorts. Several large, interconnecting bookshelves took up the majority of the space toward the center of the room and, close to where they came in at, a small desk was nestled into the corner with old notes and books left open. Everything was coated in a respectable amount of dust. Toyo sneezed and sent a cloud up.

Seto laughed and started leading them through the maze of literature, explaining "This was my grandpa's study. I can't really say I know what's all on these shelves, but I'm pretty sure it's most of his personal research."

Zen marveled just a bit, his eyes scanning over the dust covered bindings on the shelves as he passed, "All of this is his research?" He asked, a bit of excitement in his voice, "There must be decades worth of work in here…"

Seto shrugged, stopping in front of a door and fiddling with the doorknob. "Well, he'd been living here for a really long time by the time he found me after I crashed in his yard. And he d-died of old age at that. Is it really surprising that he has all that?" Seto asked, genuinely curious. His attention was pulled back to the door when he finally got the knob to turn, and he grinned a little.

Zen shook his head, following alongside everyone else as the maroon haired boy pushed into the next room, "Well, no. It's not terribly surprising; just a little staggering is all. You know, Seto, you never did really elabo-" The silver haired teen stopped abruptly, losing whatever train of thought he might have been about to embark on. He was not the only one who was hit with this effect, though. This seemed to be everyone but Seto's reaction to the room they had just entered.

Seto had just led them into a large, dim, two-story circular room with a set of doors on the other side. Bookcases were scattered around a little sparsely in this room compared to the one before it, and it looked a lot more lived in than the other room. There were moth bitten blankets and carpets scattered about, and even a couch. Tables were scattered about haphazardly and the same with their accompanying chairs. There was even a little stove set up off to the side, though it was doubtful that it would work at the moment. A single, skinny if elaborate spiral staircase led up to the floor above them, seemingly the only way to reach the second floor. Broken ladders hung down just above head level.

But perhaps the most astonishing thing in the entire room was the large telescope in the center that cut through the floor above them, pointed towards the domed ceiling.

However just like the room before it, everything was coated in a dusting of gray.

Everyone's amazement faded off at differing speeds, but Zen ended up standing with his mouth agape for a good few moments. His red headed best friend waved a hand in front of his face a little worried before shooting Seto a look.

"I think you broke him."

This seemed to break the silver haired teen out of his stupor and he swatted Toyo's hand away from his face, "I am not broken." He stated, absolutely not pouting indignantly in his friend's direction, "I was just appreciating Seto's grandfather's telescope. I don't think I've ever seen one this large outside of a book." He admitted, walking forwards into the huge piece of equipment slowly as everyone began to disperse throughout the room. Sai wandered back into the study while Toyo decided to take a rest on the couch. Crow's first destination was the other set of double doors, which he quickly discovered just led back outside on the opposite side of the house from where they'd come in at.

Seto set about getting some more light into the room and walked over to the large crank that was situated on the far wall. Although it took quite a bit of effort to actually make the thing turned, the maroon haired boy finally managed to do so. The result of this action was a loud, drawn out groan from the metal roof as it began to draw apart and let in sunlight. Dust and dirt cascaded down from above, showing just how long it had been since anyone had opened the roof.

Seto let go of the crank with a proud smile and turned back to face the room, a little surprised when he found that everyone had come back in at some point and were now staring at him.

"What?"

Crow, who had come back in from outside, strutted over and flicked him in the forehead, "Would you warn us before you decide to do something like that? I thought the ceiling was collapsing in." He snapped.

The maroon haired boy flinched back a little at the tone in the pirate's voice and looked around at the other people in the room. They all seemed tense…like they had thought that the house was collapsing or something. Had the noise really startled them that much? He turned to look back at Crow, who was looking at him expectantly and tapping his foot.

"I'm sorry I scared everyone, I just wanted to get some light in here, that's all…" He apologized, making sure to look around at everyone as he said it.

Crow let out a stressed sigh and ran a hand through his hair before he set it on top of Seto's head. "It's all good, I was coming back inside anyways. I needed you for something." Seto looked at him curiously. Crow ruffled his hair once more before he pointed at Sai and Zen, "And Zen and Eye-patch. Toyo, your attendance isn't mandatory for this one." The red head responded to this by flopping even further into the couch.

Sai scowled at the pirate as he began leading the four of them back outside, "I have a name you know."

Crow didn't look back at her, but from where he was Seto saw the smirk forming on his face when he shot back, "Oh, I know."

Sai continued scowling. Zen sighed and shook his head, "Really Crow, you can be so immature." The purple clad pirate actually turned his head and glared at Zen for that one.

"You know, none of this relates to why I brought you guys out here, so we're dropping this." He stated finally, rolling his eyes before he turned his head back around forward.

"And why exactly did you bring us out here?" Sai asked, raising an eyebrow at Crow as he seemed to lead them towards a random spot in the field of grass. Crow didn't immediately answer her, which prompted another scowl, but continued on forward towards whatever their destination was. Seto himself frowned a little, wondering just what the pirate had discovered.

Crow led them to a spot that was about twenty feet away from the house and gestured at seemingly nothing. He received three blank stares. The pirate let out a sigh and gestured again, this time downwards. And once again, for a moment, it looked as if he wasn't actually indicating anything other than a patch of grass, until one took a closer look. Crow was, in fact, bringing their attention to something.

It was completely overgrown with weeds at this point and covered in all manner and form of rust, but they were looking at an odd, bent out of shape thing made of metal that was partly submerged in the ground. The former shape of the thing appeared to have been square-like, if the four prominent pieces of metal were anything to go by. Just sticking out of the ground was the corner of something, though what exactly was up for question.

Crow kicked one of the bits of metal sticking up out of the ground idly, "This is what I brought you out here for." He told the three of them, "Seto, do you have any idea what this is? I mean it looks like junk, but it's like, the only metal thing I've seen in this field that wasn't at your house."

Seto frowned a little pensively down at the heap of twisted metal before he let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair. "T-That's kinda sorta…the thing I c-crashed down in." He admitted, looking away when the rest of the group look at him in shock. There was a very pregnant pause.

"Ok, you know how you never really wanted to talk about that?" Zen asked, setting his hands on his hips, "Now might be a fantastic time to elaborate. Because I know I'm not the only one wondering how exactly you survived an impact that crippled…" The silver haired boy paused, waving his hand at the remnants of metal in the ground, "…whatever this thing is."

At this point Zen was looking at him rather expectantly. Crow's look was more curious than anything, having only heard an abridged version some months back, and oddly enough so was Sai's. Seto wondered what exactly was going through her mind at the moment. The dark haired girl hadn't spoken much since they'd arrived at the house aside from snarking at Crow. She actually hadn't spoken very much since they'd left Topaz, now that the maroon haired boy actually thought about. It was sort of odd.

The eye patch wearing girl noticed his staring and gave him a sort of bemused look, "Well?" she prompted, "Are we gonna get a crash site explanation or are you just going to stand there awkwardly?"

Seto blushed a little and averted his eyes downward, shuffling his feet. He wasn't being awkward! …Ok, maybe a little, but that was beside the point. "Th-There isn't really a whole lot to tell…" He said, glancing back up at them, "I don't even remember it happening, I was maybe five years old…Grandpa said I was really little. He used to tell me stories of how I just sort of crash landed during his yard during an eclipse, 'like a falling star', he used to say." Seto gave a helpless shrug "That's all I really know, honestly."

Everyone let that information weigh in their minds for a few moments. Although it wasn't particularly useful information at the moment, it certainly was an interesting tidbit. If nothing else it might help them while looking through the old man's records: they had an event to start at now, and could build from there.

Zen let out a sigh, "Alright, I don't think we're going to get much more out of this thing." He stated, turning away from the crash site, "With all the damage done to it, it's probably useless for anything but scrap metal now. I say we head inside and start looking through his notes. We'll probably have more luck there."

"You mean going through all those books?" Crow asked, obviously a little put off by the sheer bulk of their mission.

Zen shrugged and shot his captain a small grin, "What, afraid of a little heavy reading? Besides, we're spending the night anyways, might as well put the time to good use." The navigator said.

"It's not like you'll be doing all the reading yourself, y'know." Sai commented, "I'm pretty interested to see what that old geezer's got written too. This is the best lead I've had on the treasure in months~" Her glee was pretty evident. Crow rolled his eyes and surprisingly kept whatever biting comment he had on the tip of his tongue to himself. Instead he started walking back towards the house, following the other pair who had already started off. He paused and glanced back when he noticed Seto wasn't following him. The maroon haired boy had actually not moved from his spot by the wreckage and was staring down at it.

The purple clad pirate wandered back over and set his head on the maroon haired teen's shoulder, causing his boyfriend to jump at the sudden contact. Seto craned his head a little and shot Crow a confused look. The pirate turned his head to meet the other boy and placed a quick, chaste kiss on his lips. While Seto's face was now covered in a light blush, Crow's was hiding the bit of concern that he felt.

"Are you worrying that pretty little head of yours again?" He asked, moving his head so he could wrap his arms around the other boy from behind.

Seto smiled softly and leaned into Crow's chest, "W-W-well, no, not really. Yes, k-kind of…" He started, stuttering like he always did when Crow started acting affectionate, "It's just…i-it's sort of weird, you know?"

Crow frowned, although his boyfriend couldn't see it, and said "No, I don't know. Enlighten me, I beg of you."

His sarcasm earned him a laugh from the maroon haired boy in his arms, who had finally relaxed a little, "Well…I don't know, I think at some point in my life, I a-accepted that I was never going to know really where I came from. That I just sort of crashed here for no reason…but now? There's people other than me trying to figure it out. I might actually figure out where I'm from…" Seto let out another small, but happy laugh, "It just feels all weird."

Crow grinned a little and kissed the top of Seto's head, "The good kind of weird?"

The maroon haired boy craned his head back and smiled at him, "The good kind of weird."

The pirate gave a small laugh at that and gave the other boy another quick peck on the lips, "Good." He said, unwrapping his arms from around Seto's shoulders and taking his hand, "Now, come on. That's enough emotional reflection for one day. We've got work to do!"

* * *

Work went slowly. Once Seto had reiterated that he had absolutely no idea what exactly was on which shelves, everyone set off to try and tackle what reading they could in the time they had. Toyo was the one who had surprisingly hit the jackpot in regards to finding Seto's grandfather's personal research, coming across several volumes that contained notes on what he had thought of the maroon haired boy's flames and ability to see them. Also covered in one of the books were details of the heap of metal that had crashed in his yard, which had resembled a cage of sorts before nature had its way with it. Toyo, however, left all of the heavy reading to Zen and the others, much more inclined to continue looking at some of the more unorthodox books that the old man had kept on his shelves.

Seto was finding that the man he'd come to call his grandfather was actually even smarter than he'd made him out to be. The majority of his research was made up of notes on the sky and meticulously detailed star charts, detailing things that even Zen had a hard time wrapping his head around entirely. The man had traveled a lot before he'd settled down in this field, as his charts detailed the skies of far off lands that Crow said were on the other side of the world. Seto was a little ashamed of himself when it dawned on him how little he actually knew the man who raised him. Then Crow showed him a log that fondly covered the first night Seto had shown his grandfather the fires in the sky, and he decided that he'd known him well enough.

Hours passed and soon the room became too dark to read in. Toyo voted that they stop and continue in the morning.

"It's not even that late yet." Crow pointed out, sitting against one of the bookshelves.

"But we can't read in the dark." Toyo argued, pouting at the pirate from his own spot on the floor. He was sitting with his legs stretched out in front of him, and he looked about ready to fall back onto the floor and just take a nap, "Can't we just regroup tomorrow on this thing?"

"Um…" Both pairs of eyes turned to look at Seto, who'd felt the urge to speak up from his spot by Crow, "We've got some lanterns setting around, w-we could use those if they work…"

Toyo eyed him with a look of pure look of betrayal that almost made the maroon haired boy feel guilty. Almost. Crow rolled his eyes and stood up, stretching as he did so before offering Seto a hand up which the other took gratefully. Toyo huffed a little and did the exact opposite of both of them, falling back dramatically onto the floor. Crow walked over and kicked his leg.

The red haired boy groaned and glared up at his captain, who met the look evenly before Crow just rolled his eyes.

"Come on, get up." No movement, "Don't make me kick you again." Still nothing. "Don't make me get Zen over here." Nope, still nothing, "I'll tell Ren how unhelpful you're being when we get back." Crow smirked triumphantly when that one caused a reaction. Toyo hopped up and dusted himself off, the scowl never leaving his face during the entire process.

"Quit grinning like that. Seriously, you're freaking me out." Toyo complained dejectedly, shooting Seto a small glare when he heard the other trying to stifle a laugh, "Let's just get this over with."

And so they went back to the room containing the large telescope and Seto directed them towards where he remembered the lanterns being on the first floor. Both pirates followed their instructions as the maroon haired boy went to check the second floor. Even with the moonlight filtering in through the open roof the room was terribly dark, which made finding the grimy lanterns all the more of a challenge. Crow found his after a few minutes of searching, finding it far back on one of the shelves. If his grumbling was anything to go by Toyo was having no such luck.

The pirate was just turning around to see if he could help his friend out, when he noticed an odd thing happening with the shadow of the telescope. That being: there was an oddly Seto-like shadow walking on top of it. Crow looked up slowly, hoping that it was just some weird lighting effect and that his boyfriend was not, in fact, pulling some idiotic stunt. His hopes were quickly crushed when he saw the maroon haired boy silhouetted against the moon, arms outstretched and walking away from where the telescope cut through the floor above them. There was a lantern on each of his arms that shook with each ginger step the boy took.

Crow let out an exasperated sigh and rushed up the steps, not sure yet what he was going to do once he got his hands on his idiotic boyfriend. He made it up there at about the time Seto was getting close to the landing. Rolling his eyes once again, the pirate walked over and offered the other his hand. Seto looked a little surprised to see it, but nonetheless smiled and took it as he stepped up onto the landing.

Crow didn't let go right away, "Seriously, is there something with you and stupid stunts today?" He asked. Seto just laughed a little.

"No, I used to do that all the time when I was younger." He said.

"And your old man let you get away with it?" Crow asked, still not letting go as Seto led him back to the stairwell.

The other boy gave a nervous sort of chuckle at the question, "Well, no…not exactly. I kinda did it without his permission." The boy admitted.

Crow perked up curiously at that, "Are you telling me that you, Seto, stick in the mud that you are, were a rebellious little child?" He asked, his voice betraying apparent awe.

He got smacked in the arm for that, and Seto failed to glare at him, "I'm not a stick in the mud!"

Crow laughed, smirking at the other before he playfully ruffled his hair, "No, of course you're not." He conceded, the teasing smirk never leaving his face. Seto stared at him. Crow rolled his eyes and pushed the boy towards the stairs, "Come on, let's get back down there before Toyo decides that our vanishing means that he doesn't have to keep working."

Seto grinned a little at that and took the lead going downstairs, "Can't have that happening, huh?" He asked, "Watch your step."

Crow shrugged the warning off and follow the other back downstairs. The trip was uneventful until they reached the base of the stairs, when a certain pirate lost his footing and crashed into his boyfriend's back. The two of them ended up in a pile in front of the stairs. Seto groaned and tried to shove Crow off of him. Crow winced and rolled off.

"I warned you about the stairs…" Seto started.

"Shut up. I don't want to hear it." Crow grumbled. Seto chuckled.

Toyo walked over and stood above them, looking down at them with an eyebrow raised in question, "You know, I got kicked for doing this earlier." He quipped.

Crow scowled up at the redhead as he sat up, "And you'll get kicked again if you keep talking." The pirate said, standing up before he helped Seto up. "Did you find that lantern?" Toyo nodded, holding up the item in question. "Alright, that's four altogether, let's see if they work."

At first, it seemed as if none of them were going to work. They couldn't get a single one to light. Crow was quickly getting annoyed with the things while Toyo was starting to have trouble hiding his triumphant smile. It took several minutes and a fair bit of fiddling around with the wick, but Crow finally got two of the four lamps lit. Crow's and Toyo's respective emotions flip flopped. The red head let out a sigh and the pirate captain was the picture of smugness.

"Alright then, reading on into the night it is." Crow announced, carefully lifting the two lanterns up and walking back into the study, his two companions trailing behind him.

"Back to _107_ _Recipes for Bachelors_ for me, then." Toyo mumbled, settling back onto his spot on the floor and picking up the previously discarded book. Crow shot him a look.

"Have you done anything productive the entire time we've been here?" Crow asked, rolling his eyes when the redhead replied with an apathetic shrug. Crow sighed and turned his attention over to Seto, who was just getting settled down himself, "Hey, you wanna do me a favor and run the second lamp over to Patchy and Zen?"

Seto rolled his eyes a little at the nickname for Sai, but nodded still and stood back up, "Yeah, I can do that." He said, grabbing the second lantern up off the floor. Crow grinned at him in thanks before sitting back down grabbing the nearest discarded book. The maroon haired boy smiled fondly at the intense look of concentration on his friend's face before he walked off into the maze of shelves.

As he looked around, though, trying to find where the pair might be, he found something odd. Seto paused where he was at and took a good look around himself, frowning. At this point, he was entirely used to not being able to locate Sai with his white vision. While it was terribly unnerving, he'd gotten used to it. Usually to compensate for her lack of fire he kept an eye out for Zen's mellow, blue flame while looking for her since they were usually together. The problem was he couldn't find Zen's fire anywhere.

He'd double checked around to make sure it wasn't a fluke of some sort. He'd looked back the way he'd come and easily spotted Crow and Toyo's respective flames, so his white vision was working perfectly fine. So then where was Zen? Seto started walking again, slowly, letting his mind wander to different possibilities. It was doubtful that the silver haired teen had wandered that far out of his range of vision with how dark it was getting out, since the forest was so close by. So then, where was he? Seto took a deep breath and kept walking, trying not to let his mind jump to any scarier conclusions.

He let out a quiet sigh of relief when he rounded one of the corners and was met by the warm glow of a lantern. His heart quickly sunk, however, when he found that the only person near said lantern was Sai laying on the floor with a book in front of her. He felt worry and suspicion needling at him again. He walked over slowly.

Hearing his footsteps, Sai glanced up from whatever she had been reading and shot him a curious glance. "Hey." She greeted.

Seto forced a smile onto his face, "Hi." He greeted back, "Guess you guys were thinking ahead of us, huh?" He asked, indicating her light source.

Sai blinked and glanced over at the lantern before nodding, "Yeah, Zen found it on top of one of the bookshelves earlier. We can't exactly reading in the dark, right?"

"Yeah, right." Seto nodded, trying to keep himself from sounding too nervous, "Where is Zen, by the way? Did he go out for a walk or something?"

The dark haired girl looked at him oddly for a few seconds before she sat up straight. Sai shook her head, "Not that I know of." She answered, "He found something in one of your old man's logs and went to go check out his desk. But that was, like, twenty minutes ago and I really haven't heard a peep from him since." The blue eyed girl shrugged, and looked at him curiously, "Can't you see him with that eye of yours?"

Seto floundered for an answer for a moment, not sure whether or not to tell her that he actually couldn't see Zen. After a moment he gave a slight shake of his head, "N-No…I don't see him anywhere. I'm gonna go check out where you said he went though, see if when I get closer I can see him any better." That was a lie. The desk was only a few bookshelves over and from where he was, he should have been able to see if anyone was over there. All of those scary conclusions were jumping to mind again.

Sai eyed him for a moment quietly, and the maroon haired boy worried that she was going to ask to come with, or if she didn't believe him. In the end the girl just shrugged and went back to her book with a small wave, saying "Have fun with that. Tell him 'hi' for me."

Seto blinked. That had better than expected. He actually managed to smile this time, "I will." He told her. She didn't answer and Seto took that as a sign to quit disturbing her reading and continued onwards.

The pathway quickly dimmed again once he got away from where Sai was camped out at, and the encroaching darkness unsettled him a lot. Seto shivered and turned around, looking around just a little frantically for a second before his eyes landed on Crow's familiar, midnight purple fire flickered into view. The sight alone calmed his panicking heart a little. Seto let out a small sigh and turned back around. He started walking again after a few seconds. It was just a little further until he got to where Sai said Zen went. He was over-reacting.

Seto wasn't sure what he was expecting when he rounded the corner that brought his grandfather's desk into view, but he certainly wasn't expecting what he saw.

Zen was sitting at the desk.

But something was really, _really_ off.

"Zen…?" Seto called out, hoping to get the other boy's attention. Was Zen even awake? …Yes, he was awake. His breathing was way too irregular for him to be sleeping."Zen?" He tried again, taking a few steps closer. He still received no response from the silver haired teen. An uneasy feeling rolled in the pit of Seto's stomach as he took a few steps closer to the silent teen. He stopped behind the chair and watched as Zen's shoulders rose and fell with quiet, heavy breaths.

"Zen…" Seto tried once more. Nothing. The maroon haired boy then went against every single warning bell going off in his head and gently set his hand on Zen's shoulder.

The reaction this time was immediate. With lightning speed Zen was turned around in his chair and there was a death grip around Seto's wrist. Seto let out a pained cry as a horrid jolt jumped through his body, far worse than any shock received from touching someone than he'd ever felt before. He stared terrified at the other boy before him, and tried to pull away from the person who looked so drastically different than what he was used to.

Zen was an absolute mess. His hair was in total disarray and going in all directions at once, looking nearly white in the lighting. And he was pale as death, as if all of the blood had been drained out of him. Seto almost swore his skin had taken on a blue tint. But the single biggest thing different about the silver haired boy was his eyes. The maroon haired boy shivered under the silent gaze, wondering just when these cold, red eyes had replaced the warm mahogany ones he was so familiar with.

Another jolt rocketed through him and Seto was almost sure this was what being struck by lightning felt like. His brain went absolutely blank, and it felt as if every ounce of blood in his body had frozen solid at once. It was such a jolt that Seto didn't even cry out, instead just crumbling to the ground as his legs gave out beneath him. Darkness flickered at the edges of his vision as he tried to look around, his eyes landing on Crow's fire in the distance.

It was the last thing he saw before everything went dark.

End Chapter 


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